Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Beans and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Wash and soak the beans overnight.
Put the beans in a pot with cold water and the onion, then bring to a boil.
Boil until tender, about two hours depending on the size of the beans.
Drain the beans and fry the bacon in a pan.
Finish and serve
Fry the beans in the fat rendered from the bacon, seasoning if necessary.
Place the beans in the center of a dish and arrange the bacon around them.
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 + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,242 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 dish and absorb flavor from the bacon fat and onion.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savory flavor, which is rendered into the pan for frying the beans.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the beans while they cook.
The step that matters
Boil until tender. Dried beans need enough time in simmering water to soften fully, since undercooked beans stay firm and can be hard to digest. Size and age vary, so test for tenderness rather than relying only on the clock.
“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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