Why it works: Beans and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,159 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak two quarts of dried white beans overnight.
Take five pounds of lean fresh beef, cut into coarse pieces.
Add the beef and its bones to the soup pot.
Add a pound of small-cut bacon.
If you have leftover roasted beef, add it and its bones.
Season the meat with pepper only.
Pour six quarts of water into the pot.
Bring the soup to a boil, skim off the scum.
Drain the soaked beans and add them to the pot.
Add a head of celery cut small, or a tablespoon of pounded celery seed.
Simmer and serve
Simmer slowly until the meat shreds and the beans dissolve.
Strain the soup through a colander into a tureen, and add small squares of toasted bread with crust removed.
If you prefer beans less dissolved, do not strain; instead remove meat and bones with a fork before serving.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 6 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Bacon | 1 slice cooked (8g) | 43 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Bean | not in our table | 0 |
| Soup | not in our table | 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.
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.
-
Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,159 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
-
Beans + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,370 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried white beans
- Soften and dissolve during long simmering, thickening the soup and giving it body.
- Fresh beef
- Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth, giving a rich, savoury taste.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and smoky, salty flavour that carries through the soup.
- Roasted beef
- Contributes deeper, browned meat flavour to the broth.
- Celery
- Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavour to the soup.
The step that matters
Skimming after the boil. Skimming removes the grey scum that rises as proteins coagulate, keeping the broth clear and free of off-flavours before the long simmer.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, beef):
- Cuminfits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Oreganofits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, beef. 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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