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French Beans and Fried Brains

A dish of stewed string beans topped with fried brain cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

French Beans and Fried Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Open the can of string beans at least one hour before cooking.

  2. Cut the beans into short pieces.

  3. Cover the beans with hot water.

  4. Stew the beans for 30 minutes without breaking them.

  5. Drain the beans well.

  6. Stir the beans in melted butter, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  7. Heap the beans in a deep dish.

Prepare the brains

  1. Wash the brains.

  2. Soak the brains in cold salt water for one hour.

  3. Boil the brains for ten minutes.

  4. Leave the brains in very cold water until firm, about fifteen minutes.

  5. Wipe the brains.

  6. Chop the brains finely.

  7. Mix the chopped brains with parsley, pepper, and salt.

  8. Form the mixture into small cakes.

Fry and serve

  1. Dust your hands with flour.

  2. Dip each cake in beaten egg.

  3. Coat each cake with cracker crumbs.

  4. Fry the cakes in hot oil until golden brown.

  5. Drain the fried cakes thoroughly.

  6. Garnish the beans with the brains.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

String beans
Hold their shape during stewing and provide the bulk of the dish.
Brains
Provide the rich, soft interior that contrasts with the crisp coating.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumb coating so it adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden-brown crust when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the beans and carries the seasoning.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the beans.

The step that matters

Leave the brains in very cold water until firm. Brains are soft and delicate; chilling them firm before chopping and shaping lets the cakes hold together, so they do not fall apart in the hot oil.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, lemon, parsley, flour, egg. 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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