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Wax Beans, Pickled

Pickled wax beans preserved with spices, vinegar, and 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 and wash them in cold water.

  2. Boil the beans in a kettle of water over a brisk fire for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the beans and spread them on a cloth-covered table to cool.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack the cooled beans into a 1-gallon glass jar, layering with bay leaves.

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

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

  4. Add whole black pepper, seal the jar with a ground glass stopper, and pour melted beeswax around 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

Wax beans
Form the main body of the pickle, becoming tender after boiling and firm after pickling.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the beans and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the beans and seasons the pickle during brining.
Ground black mustard
Adds sharp pungency and helps season the pickling liquid.
Beeswax
Forms a sealing layer over the jar that keeps air out of the pickle.

The step that matters

Cooling the beans before packing. Beans must be spread out and cooled fully before packing. Packing them warm can soften them further and let steam dilute the vinegar, weakening the pickle's texture and keeping quality.

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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