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Beans, Haricot, Dried

A simple recipe for cooking dried haricot beans with salt, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beans, Haricot, Dried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the haricot beans in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Drain the soaking water and place the beans in 2 quarts of fresh water with the salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Simmer the beans until soft and mealy, then drain again.

  2. Return the beans to the saucepan, add the butter, and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Shake the saucepan until the butter is melted and the beans are heated through, then serve immediately.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  2. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Provide the main body and starchy, mealy texture once softened by soaking and simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the beans and giving them a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Simmer the beans until soft and mealy. Beans need enough time in water to fully soften their starch and cell walls. Undercooked beans stay firm and grainy, while the mealy texture depends on the starch being fully gelatinised.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper):

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

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