Name: Kidney Beans
Ingredients: 1 cup kidney beans; 1 inch piece of fat salt pork; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Butter to taste

Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Kidney Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Shell the kidney beans.
Place them in boiling water with the fat salt pork and cook until tender.
Drain the beans well.
Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

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.

Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Kidney beans + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together218 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Kidney beans + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together186 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney beans: Form the main body of the dish, providing starch and a creamy, tender texture when cooked.
Fat salt pork: Adds savory fat and salty flavor to the beans as they simmer.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth finish to the seasoned beans.