Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Wash the beans and soak them overnight.
Drain the beans.
Cook the soup
Place the beans in a large pot with 5 quarts of water and the salt pork.
Bring to a boil and cook until the beans are perfectly soft.
Remove the pork.
Either strain the soup or serve it with the beans as preferred.
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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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 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
- Dried beans
- Provide the main body of the soup, softening during long cooking to thicken the liquid.
- Salt pork
- Adds savory fat and salty flavor to the broth as it simmers.
The step that matters
Cook until the beans are perfectly soft. Dried beans must cook long enough to fully soften, since the starch inside gelatinizes only with sufficient heat and time. Undercooked beans stay firm and can taste starchy, while a gentle boil helps them cook evenly without breaking apart.
“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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