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Black Bean Soup

A hearty soup made from soaked black beans, onion, celery, spices, butter, flour, hard‑boiled eggs, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak beans overnight; in the morning drain and add cold water.

  2. Slice onion and cook five minutes with half the butter, then add to beans with celery stalks broken into pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Simmer three or four hours, or until beans are soft; add more water as it boils away.

  2. Rub through a sieve, reheat to boiling point, and add salt, pepper, mustard, and cayenne, mixing well.

  3. Bind with remaining butter and flour cooked together.

Garnish and serve

  1. Cut eggs into thin slices, and lemon into thin slices, removing seeds.

  2. Put in a tureen and strain the soup over the slices.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

826Calories
30 gProtein
19 gFat
133 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Black beans
Form the main body of the soup and thicken it when rubbed through a sieve.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with flour forms a binding for the soup.
Flour
Cooked with butter to bind and thicken the soup slightly.
Eggs
Provide a garnish of sliced hard-boiled egg with added body and richness.
Lemon
Adds acidity and a bright citrus note that balances the soup.

The step that matters

Rub through a sieve. Pressing the cooked beans through a sieve breaks down their fibrous skins and softer tissue, giving the soup a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves it grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, celery, pepper, mustard, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, celery, pepper, mustard, butter, flour, egg. 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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