Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Soak the beans overnight.
In the morning, drain the water, add fresh water, and boil until the hulls slip off easily.
Transfer the beans to cold water, rub them to remove the hulls, and discard the hulls.
Make the soup
Boil the beans in 2 quarts of water until soft, then mash them.
If using meat, boil it with the beans for flavor.
If not using meat, mix the butter and flour together and add to the soup.
Season with salt and pepper while boiling.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beans + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beans
- Form the body of the soup, thickening into a soft, mashed texture as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the soup when no meat is used.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup slightly when combined with butter and added to the liquid.
The step that matters
Remove the hulls after boiling. Boiling loosens the bean hulls so they slip off; rubbing in cold water then removes them. Skipping this leaves tough skins in the mashed soup.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, meat, flour, pepper):
- Almondfits about as well
- Beansthe original
- Walnutfits about as well
- Sesamefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, meat, flour, 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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