Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
String-beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Wash and remove the strings from the string beans, then break them into 1-inch pieces.
Cook and serve
Cook the beans in 1 pint of boiling water with salt and the slice of fried salt pork for 2 hours.
Discard the pork, then add butter, flour, and black pepper to the beans.
Cook until well combined and serve in a vegetable dish.
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.
-
Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- String beans
- The main vegetable, cooked until tender in the boiling water.
- Salt pork
- Adds savory, smoky flavor to the cooking water and beans.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished beans.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid so it clings to the beans.
The step that matters
Adding the flour after the pork is removed. Flour needs to be stirred in and cooked briefly so it dissolves into the hot liquid without lumps and thickens evenly. Adding it to beans that are not well combined can leave floury pockets.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, flour, pepper):
- Almondfits about as well
- Beansthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Black-eyed peafits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, 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.
More string beans recipes
You might also like
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.