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Haricot Beans, to Stew

A stew of haricot beans with bacon, brown gravy, onion, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Haricot Beans, to Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak and boil the beans until tender, then drain and dry them.

  2. Cut the bacon into small dice and pour boiling water over it for a few minutes, then drain.

Cook the stew

  1. In a stewpan, cook the bacon over medium heat until lightly browned.

  2. Add the brown gravy and minced onion to the bacon, season with pepper and salt, and simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Stir in the beans and let them stew for another 15 minutes before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Form the bulk of the stew and soften into a tender, starchy base.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour as it browns in the pan.
Brown gravy
Provides liquid and body, thickened with flour to coat the beans.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness that deepens as it cooks in the stew.

The step that matters

Simmering the beans with the gravy. Beans must be fully tender before they are stewed, since acidic or cold liquids and short cooking can leave them firm. Simmering gently keeps the thickened gravy smooth and prevents it from scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, 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.

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