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White Kidney Beans, Puree of

A creamy puree made from boiled white kidney beans, onions, butter, flour, broth, and thick cream, garnished with fried bread crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

White Kidney Beans, Puree of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and lightly fry the chopped onion until soft.

  2. Add the flour to the pan and cook until lightly browned, then moisten with broth.

  3. Heat the boiled beans in the onion mixture until hot, then season with coarse sea salt.

Puree and finish

  1. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve (tamis) to create a puree.

  2. Reduce the puree over medium heat, skimming off any scum.

  3. Before serving, stir in a small piece of fresh butter and the thick cream.

  4. Garnish with fried bread crusts around the dish.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Kidney beans + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

White kidney beans
Provide the main body and starch that thicken the puree into a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel, and carries the flavour of the onion.
Flour
Cooked until lightly browned, it thickens the liquid and adds a toasted, nutty note.
Broth
Moistens the flour and onion base, adding savoury flavour and liquid for the puree.
Thick cream
Stirred in at the end to add richness and a smooth, velvety finish.

The step that matters

Reducing the puree after straining. Simmering over medium heat thickens the puree by evaporation, and skimming removes the scum that would otherwise cloud the flavour and texture. Stopping too early leaves it thin; boiling too hard can scorch the bottom and make it stick.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, flour, cream, bread):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour, cream, bread. 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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