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Bean Soup

A hearty soup made from soaked beans simmered in beef stock with onion, carrot, and optional tomato.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans in cold water overnight.

  2. Drain and wash the beans in the morning.

Cook the soup

  1. Put the beans into a soup kettle with the beef stock, ensuring all fat is removed.

  2. Bring to a slow boil and cook for at least 3 hours.

  3. Two hours before serving, slice the onion and carrot.

  4. If desired, add a little tomato for flavor.

  5. If you prefer a smooth soup, strain through a colander before serving.

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.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beans
Provide the main body and starch that thicken the soup as they cook.
Beef stock
Supplies the liquid and savory flavor base for the whole soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens in the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Removing the fat before cooking. Fat from the stock or meat can float and make the soup greasy and heavy on the palate. Skimming it before the long simmer keeps the broth clean and clear-tasting.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, beef, onion, carrot):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, beef, onion, carrot. 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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