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Haricot-Beans

A group of French haricot bean and related bean preparations, including purées, butter-dressed beans, red beans, and French beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Auguste Escoffier · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Haricot-Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Haricot beans

  1. Cook the beans as described under No. 274, adding one-half lb. of lean bacon per pint of dry beans to the prescribed ingredients.

  2. When cooked and well drained, mix the beans with the bacon cut into dice, and cohere them with good tomato sauce.

  3. Having well drained the haricot-beans, season them with salt and pepper.

  4. Cohere them with two oz. of butter per lb. of cooked beans.

  5. Dish in a timbale and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  6. Drain the haricot-beans well and cohere them with a Bretonne sauce, using one-third pint of sauce per lb. of cooked beans.

  7. Dish in a timbale with chopped parsley.

  8. Rub the haricot-beans through a sieve while they are burning-hot.

  9. Add three oz. of butter per lb. of purée and dry it over a very fierce fire.

  10. Add some milk to bring the purée to its proper consistence.

Flageolets

  1. Prepare flageolets in the same way as haricot-beans.

Red beans

  1. Cook red beans in salted water with one-third lb. of lean bacon, one pint of red wine, one carrot, one onion stuck with a clove, and one faggot per quart of beans.

  2. Withdraw the bacon as soon as it is cooked.

  3. Cohere the red beans by means of manied butter.

  4. Mix the red beans with the bacon, cut into dice and frizzled in butter.

French beans

  1. Do not cool French beans when cooked; sauté them over the fire to evaporate their moisture.

  2. Season the French beans with salt and pepper, then add about three oz. of very fresh butter per lb., cut into small pieces.

  3. Sauté the beans to effect their liaison, and serve straightway.

  4. Do not add chopped parsley to French beans unless it is very tender and chopped at the last moment.

  5. Cook the French beans in salted water, drain them well, and stew them in butter for eight or ten minutes.

  6. Rub the French beans through a fine sieve, and mix the resulting purée with half its bulk of very creamy flageolet purée.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

101Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0
Beannot 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 Auguste Escoffier. 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Make up the bulk, and their starch gives the dish its body and soft texture.
Bacon (in the method)
Adds savoury fat and smoky flavour that carries through the beans.
Butter (in the method)
Enriches the beans and binds them into a smooth, glossy coating.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour, and colours the red beans.
Tomato sauce
Moistens the beans and adds acidity and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Rub the haricot-beans through a sieve while they are burning-hot.. Hot, freshly cooked beans are soft and break down easily into a smooth purée. Once they cool, the starch sets and the purée turns stiff and grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, red wine, carrot, beans, parsley, pepper):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, red wine, carrot, beans, parsley, 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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