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Bean and Corn Soup

A hearty soup made with beans, corn, pork, beef, celery, onion, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bean and Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Combine soaked beans, pork, beef, celery, onion, and water in a large pot.

  2. Boil slowly until the beans are broken down and the meat is tender.

  3. Cook corn in a separate pot with just enough boiling water to cover it until tender.

  4. Stir in half the butter and flour, keep warm.

  5. Strain the soup, rubbing beans, onion, and celery through a colander to create a smooth base.

  6. Set aside half for tomorrow.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the remaining soup to the heat, add pepper to taste, stir in the corn along with its cooking water.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Stir in the remaining butter and flour. Bring to a boil.

  4. Serve.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Salt pork
Renders fat and seasoning into the broth, adding richness and savory flavor.
Lean beef
Becomes tender during slow boiling, adding meaty flavor and substance to the soup.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the soup and butter adds richness when stirred in as a roux.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the butter and flour. Flour added directly to hot liquid can clump. Mixing it with butter first and stirring while the soup is warm helps it disperse evenly and thicken smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pork, beef, celery, parsley, pepper, corn):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, beef, celery, parsley, pepper, corn. 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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