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Bean Soup

A soup made with dried beans, tomatoes, parsley, olive oil, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in enough water to cover them.

  2. Drain the water, then add 1 quart of fresh water and boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain again and add 2 quarts of boiling water; boil for 6 hours.

Finish the soup

  1. Mash the beans through a colander.

  2. Add the cooked tomatoes, parsley, and olive oil; cook for an additional 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in the milk and serve.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Provide the main body and starch that thicken the soup as they soften.
Cooked tomatoes
Add acidity and body, giving the soup a brighter flavour.
Olive oil
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the soup a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Mash the beans through a colander. Beans must be fully softened before mashing, since firm beans will not pass through and thicken the soup. Mashing releases starch, which gives body to the broth.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, tomato, olive, milk):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Oreganofits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, olive, milk. 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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