Name: String Beans
Ingredients: fresh string beans; coarse sea salt; sweet butter; vinegar (optional)

Why it works: Beans and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,799 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

String Beans

Ingredients

fresh string beans
coarse sea salt
sweet butter
vinegar (optional)

Directions

Shred the fresh string beans finely, cutting them lengthwise.
Boil salted water and add the shredded beans.
Cook for 2 hours, then drain in a colander.
Serve with plenty of sweet butter and a splash of vinegar if desired.

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.

Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beans + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,347 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).