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Spanish Beans

A bean stew made with pink beans, tomatoes, onions, salt pork or olive oil, chili powder, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Spanish Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Soak the pink beans overnight.

  2. In a large pot, combine the soaked beans, condensed tomatoes, water, sliced onion, salt pork (or olive oil), chili powder, red pepper, and salt.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook slowly for several hours, stirring occasionally. Add more water if necessary to keep the beans covered.

Finish

  1. When the beans are tender, stir in the grated cheese.

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Pink beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender and creamy during long, slow simmering.
Condensed tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the cooking liquid, flavouring the beans as they simmer.
Salt pork or olive oil
Adds fat and savoury richness that carries the flavour of the dish.
Grated cheese
Melts into the hot beans, adding richness and a savoury, slightly salty finish.

The step that matters

Keeping the beans covered with liquid. Beans that are exposed to air while simmering can become dry and unevenly cooked, and their skins may split. Keeping them submerged ensures even tenderness and a smooth, moist texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, tomato, pork, pepper, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, pork, pepper, cheese. 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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