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French, or String Beans

A sautéed bean dish with tomato, onion, chiles, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French, or String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. String the beans and cut off the ends.

  2. Cut the beans into very small pieces.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine the beans, tomato, onion, chiles, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add just enough water to cover the beans and cook until nearly done.

  3. In a small bowl, mix the flour with a little water to make a smooth paste.

  4. Add the vinegar and flour mixture to the pot and bring to a boil.

  5. Serve hot.

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 + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

String beans
Form the main body of the dish and soften into tender pieces during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the beans.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light, smooth sauce when boiled.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that brightens the flavour of the beans and butter.
Tomato
Contributes moisture and mild acidity to the pot liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the flour paste. Flour must be mixed smoothly with water first and then brought to a boil; added dry or in lumps, it clumps and fails to thicken the liquid evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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