Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the beans overnight.
Finely chop the salt pork and onions.
Cook the soup
Boil the beans in 4 or more quarts of water until soft.
Add the salt pork and onions to the pot.
Boil for two hours.
Strain the soup.
Boil for an additional five minutes.
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.
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,242 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 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
- Beans
- Provide the main body, and their starch thickens the soup as they cook and soften.
- Fresh beef
- Adds meaty flavor and richness during the long simmer.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory, smoky depth that flavors the whole pot.
- Onions
- Add aroma and mild sweetness as they soften in the broth.
The step that matters
Boil the beans until fully soft before adding the other ingredients. Dried beans that are not fully cooked stay firm and tough, and their skins and interiors do not fully break down, so the soup ends up with a grainy texture.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, onion):
- Sesamefits better
- Peanutfits about as well
- Beansthe original
- Soybeanfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, onion. 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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