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Puree of Bean Soup

A smooth puree made from navy beans, onion, milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Puree of Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the dried navy beans with the small onion until tender.

  2. Pass the mixture through a colander.

  3. Add the milk, butter, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Bring to a boil and serve.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  3. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried navy beans
Break down into a thick puree that gives the soup its body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and liquid, softening the puree into a smooth soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Small onion
Adds savory aroma and depth as it cooks with the beans.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil and serve. Boiling milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot or curdle if it overheats. Keep the heat moderate and stir often so the soup stays smooth and does not catch.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, onion, milk):

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Soybeanfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, onion, milk. 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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