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Soup

Bean Soup

A hearty soup made with beans, beef stock, onion, carrot, and optional tomato.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans in cold water overnight.

  2. Drain and wash the beans in fresh water.

Make the soup

  1. Put the beans into a soup kettle with the beef stock.

  2. Boil slowly for at least 3 hours.

  3. Two hours before serving, add the sliced onion and carrot.

  4. If desired, strain the soup to serve hot.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beans
Form the main body of the soup and thicken it as they break down during long simmering.
Beef stock
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor for the soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens and releases its flavor into the broth.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness and body as it softens in the simmering broth.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for at least 3 hours. A gentle simmer lets the beans soften fully and release starch that thickens the broth. A hard boil can break the beans apart and make the soup cloudy.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, beef, onion, carrot):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, beef, onion, carrot. 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.

More bean soup recipes

Black 138Haricot 45White 36Baked 31Turtle 22Lima 16 See all 179 →

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