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Black Bean Soitp

A soup of black beans, stock, spices, and vegetables, simmered and served with lemon slices and egg balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Black Bean Soitp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak a pint of black beans overnight in three quarts of water.

  2. In the morning, pour off this water.

  3. Add three quarts of fresh water.

  4. Boil gently for six hours.

  5. When done, there should be one quart of liquid remaining.

Make the soup

  1. Add a quart of stock, six whole cloves, six whole allspice, a small piece of mace, a small piece of cinnamon, a stalk of celery, a bouquet of sweet herbs, one good sized onion, and one small slice each of turnip and carrot, all cut fine.

  2. Fry the vegetables in three tablespoonfuls of butter.

  3. Into the butter remaining in the pan, put a spoonful of flour and cook until brown.

  4. Add this to the soup and simmer all together for one hour.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Rub through a fine sieve.

Serve

  1. Serve with slices of lemon and egg balls, the lemon to be put in the tureen with the soup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

739Calories
22 gProtein
14 gFat
131 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Beans + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together511 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Black beans
Form the body of the soup, breaking down during long simmering to thicken it.
Butter
Carries the frying of the vegetables and browns the flour, adding richness and flavour.
Flour
Cooked in butter until brown, it thickens the soup and adds a toasted flavour.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and adds savoury depth.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury flavour as it softens into the soup.

The step that matters

Cook the flour in butter until brown. Flour browned in butter gives a nutty flavour and thickens the soup. Stop too early and it tastes raw and pasty; go too far and it turns bitter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beans, cinnamon, flour, clove, allspice, onion):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beans, cinnamon, flour, clove, allspice, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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