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Bean Polenta

Bean Polenta is a dish of cooked white beans flavored with butter, molasses, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Bean Polenta

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash the beans and soak them overnight in cold water.

  2. In the morning, drain the water, cover with fresh cold water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil slowly for one hour, then drain again.

  4. Cover with one quart of fresh boiling water and boil slowly for another hour.

Finish and season

  1. When done, press through a colander and return to the kettle.

  2. Add the butter or drippings, molasses, mustard, salt, pepper, and vinegar, then stir and boil for ten minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Small white beans
Provide the bulk and starch that thicken the mixture into a spreadable polenta-like texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a dark color with a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the molasses.
Butter or drippings
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Pressing the cooked beans through a colander. Pressing breaks down the softened beans into a smooth purée; leaving lumps gives a grainy texture, and the mixture thickens as starch is released.

“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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