Name: Butter Bean Soup
Ingredients: 1 pint of water; 1/2 saltspoonful of herbs; 1/2 small onion cut up small; 1 teacupful of breadcrumbs; 1 egg well beaten; 1/2 small onion chopped fine; pepper; salt

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Butter Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

Soak 2 oz. butter beans overnight in 1 pint water.
Add 1/2 small onion cut up small, 2 oz carrot, 2 oz celery, and 1/2 oz butter.
Cook all vegetables until tender, adding water as it boils away.
When all is tender, rub vegetables through a sieve, return to saucepan.
Season with pepper and salt, add butter, boil up soup, and serve.

Make and fry the sausages

Oil the butter and mix it with breadcrumbs, egg, onion, herbs, and seasoning.
Make the mixture into sausages, roll them into a little breadcrumb, and fry them brown in a little vegetable butter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

583Calories

21 gProtein

7 gFat

107 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

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

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together50,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,333 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter beans (in the method): Provide the bulk and body that the soup thickens around once puréed.
Egg: Binds the breadcrumb mixture so the sausages hold their shape.
Breadcrumbs: Absorb moisture and give the sausages a firm, crisp outer coating when fried.
Butter (in the method): Adds richness and fat to the soup and helps the sausages brown in the pan.