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Puree of Beans

A smooth bean puree made with green beans, butter, flour, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Green beans and beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Puree of Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Boil the beans in salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Drain the beans and immerse them in cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the beans again.

Make the puree

  1. Melt the butter in a stew pan.

  2. Add pepper, salt, and flour.

  3. Add the beans and cover with broth or warm water.

  4. Stir in the chopped sweet herbs and simmer slowly until it becomes a mass.

  5. Strain the mixture and stir in a piece of butter before serving.

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. Green beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Pepper + beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  3. Flour + beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Green beans + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together369 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green beans
Form the bulk of the puree, providing the main body and flavor of the dish.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the puree holds together as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished puree.

The step that matters

Simmering until it becomes a mass. Simmering slowly lets the beans and flour thicken gradually. Too much heat can scorch the bottom of the pan or make the puree stick, so keep the heat low and stir often.

Swap the green beans

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Green beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, beans. 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.

More bean puree recipes

White 10Haricot 6Lima 6Green Flageolet 5Red 4White Haricot 3 See all 8 →

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