Name: French Bean Salad
Ingredients: 1 pound fresh green beans; 2 tablespoons salad oil; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 tablespoon wine vinegar; 1 teaspoon finely minced tarragon (optional); 1 teaspoon finely minced chives (optional)

Why it works: Tarragon and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 589 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

French Bean Salad

Ingredients

1 pound fresh green beans
2 tablespoons salad oil
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 teaspoon finely minced tarragon (optional)
1 teaspoon finely minced chives (optional)

Directions

Cook the beans

Boil the beans whole until tender, then drain and dry them on a cloth.
Once the beans are completely cold, place them in a bowl.

Dress the salad

Pour the salad oil over the beans and sprinkle with black pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add a few drops of wine vinegar.
If desired, sprinkle with minced tarragon and chives.

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.

Tarragon + chivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together589 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,399 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,885 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Green beans + chivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh green beans: Form the main body of the salad and carry the dressing.
Salad oil: Coats the beans, adding richness and carrying flavour through the salad.
Wine vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the oil and balances the salad.

The step that matters

Drying and cooling the beans before dressing. Beans that are still wet or warm will dilute the dressing and fail to hold the oil, so they should be fully dry and cold before the oil and vinegar go on.

Swap the tarragon

The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (green beans, pepper, wine, vinegar, chive):

Garlicfits about as well
Tarragonthe original
Thymefits less well
Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against green beans, pepper, wine, vinegar, chive. 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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French Bean Salad