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Bean Soup

A hearty soup made from soaked beans, water, tomatoes, parsley, oil, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

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

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

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

Finish the soup

  1. Mash the beans through a colander.

  2. Add the cooked tomatoes, parsley, and 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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Beans + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,266 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Form the body of the soup as they soften and break down when mashed.
Cooked tomatoes
Add acidity and a rich, savoury flavour to the soup.
Oil
Adds fat, carrying flavour and giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild sweetness, softening the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the beans until fully tender before mashing. Dried beans need long, sustained simmering to soften their starches and cell walls. If they are undercooked, they will not mash smoothly and the soup will be grainy and firm.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, 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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