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Black Bean Soup

Soup of black beans, stock, spices, and a butter‑flour roux, served with lemon slices and hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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

Prepare the beans

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

  2. In the morning, pour off the soaking water and add 3 quarts of fresh water.

  3. Boil gently for 3 hours until there is over a quart of liquid remaining.

Make the soup

  1. Add 1 quart of stock, 2 whole cloves, 2 whole allspice, a small onion, a piece of mace, a small piece of cinnamon, a stalk of celery, and a bay leaf.

  2. In a frying pan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. When the butter bubbles, add 1 tablespoon of flour and cook until brown.

  3. Add the roux to the soup and simmer all together for nearly an hour.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Strain through a fine sieve.

Serve

  1. Serve with slices of lemon and hard-boiled eggs.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

697Calories
21 gProtein
14 gFat
122 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
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
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 Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Allspice + cinnamontop 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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Black beans
Provide the main body and starch that thickens the soup as they cook down.
Butter
Carries flavour and, with the flour, forms the roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked in butter to form a roux.
Stock
Adds savoury depth as the base liquid for the soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux until brown. Flour cooked in butter until brown gives a nuttier flavour and colour, but it can scorch quickly if left unattended, and scorched flour tastes bitter.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, flour, clove, allspice, cinnamon, 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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