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Wax Beans, Pickled

A pickled bean preserve sealed with beeswax.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Wax Beans, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. String the beans carefully with a knife.

  2. Wash the beans in cold water.

  3. Boil the beans in a kettle of boiling water for 30 minutes.

  4. Spread the beans on a cloth-covered table to cool.

Pack the jar

  1. Layer the beans and bay leaves in a 1-gallon glass jar until it's nearly full.

  2. Add ground pepper, ground black mustard, and coarse sea salt to the jar.

  3. Fill the jar with cold cider vinegar, leaving half an inch from the neck.

  4. Add whole black pepper.

Seal the jar

  1. Seal the jar with a ground glass stopper.

  2. Pour melted beeswax around the stopper, ensuring the vinegar does not touch it.

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. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  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

Young round beans
Form the main body of the pickle and take on the flavor of the brine.
Cold cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the beans and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the beans and seasons the brine.
Ground black mustard
Adds pungent heat and sharpness that complements the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pour melted beeswax around the stopper. The wax must seal the jar without touching the vinegar inside. Keeping the seal dry and airtight prevents leaks and spoilage, while the vinegar must stay in contact only with the beans and spices.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mustard, cider, vinegar):

  1. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, cider, vinegar. 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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