Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
String Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the string beans in cold water.
Break off the top and bottom ends and string or pare both sides.
Cook
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the beans and butter.
When the beans are partly cooked, add the salt.
Boil rapidly for 30 to 40 minutes until tender.
For a Southern style, cook with enough fat side meat to grease and season.
Finish
Drain the beans and season with butter, salt, and cream.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beans + meattop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together369 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Butter + meattop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,799 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Cream + meattop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,248 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- String beans
- Provide the main vegetable body and texture once boiled until tender.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the beans.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and a smooth, rich finish to the drained beans.
The step that matters
Boil rapidly for 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Beans need a long, vigorous boil to soften their fibrous cell walls fully. Stopping early leaves them tough, while adding salt only after they are partly cooked keeps the beans from toughening during cooking.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, meat):
- Filbertfits better
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, meat. 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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