Name: Bean Soup
Ingredients: 1 pint of beans; 4 quarts of water; a small piece of fat beef; 1 tablespoon of flour (optional)

Why it works: Beans and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,080 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 pint of beans
4 quarts of water
a small piece of fat beef
1 tablespoon of flour (optional)

Directions

In a large pot, combine the beans, water, and fat beef.
Bring to a boil and cook for three hours.
Strain the soup through a fine mesh.
If the soup is too thin, stir in 1 tablespoon of flour to thicken.

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.

Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,080 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beans + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,134 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,677 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beans: Provide the main body and starch that give the soup its substance as they cook down.
Fat beef: Adds richness and savoury flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Flour: Thickens the soup slightly when stirred in, adding body to a thin broth.