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Black Bean Soup

A soup made from soaked black beans simmered with spices, stock, butter roux, and served with lemon slices and hard boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fredonia, N.Y. Trinity parish guild, comp. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beans

  1. Soak 1 pint black beans overnight in 3 quarts water.

  2. In the morning pour off the water and add 3 quarts fresh water. Boil gently for 2 hours.

  3. When done there should be 1 quart. Add a quart stock, 2 whole cloves, 2 whole allspice, a small piece of mace, a small piece of cinnamon, a stalk of celery and a small onion.

Make the roux

  1. In a frying pan melt 3 tablespoons butter; when it begins to bubble, add 1 tablespoon flour and cook until brown. Add to soup and simmer all together for 1 hour.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then strain through a fine sieve. Serve with slices of lemon and hard boiled eggs.

  2. Just before removing from the stove, add a teacup of wine.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

132Calories
1 gProtein
12 gFat
8 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Celery1 stalk (40g)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 Fredonia, N.Y. Trinity parish guild, comp. [from old catalog]. 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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Black beans (in the method)
Form the body of the soup and break down during simmering to thicken it.
Butter
Carries flavor and adds richness to the soup and roux.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the soup and adds a nutty, browned flavor when cooked in the butter.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and flour until brown. Flour thickens best when cooked in fat, and browning adds a nutty flavor. Flour that goes past brown quickly turns bitter, so watch it closely.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, celery, clove, allspice, butter, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, celery, clove, allspice, butter, pepper. 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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