Name: String Beans
Ingredients: string beans; water; coarse sea salt; milk; butter; pepper

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Break off both ends of the string beans and remove the strings carefully.
Break the beans into 1-inch pieces.
Place the beans in boiling water to cover them, ensuring they do not boil dry.
Add enough coarse sea salt to season the beans and cook for 2 to 3 hours.
When done, drain most of the water.
Add milk, butter, and pepper to the beans.
Thicken the mixture slightly 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + milktop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,266 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).