Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
An Excellent Receipt for French Beans a LA Francaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Prepare the beans and boil them until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Drain the beans.
Make the sauce and serve
In a clean saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and cook gently until lightly browned.
Add salt and pepper, then gradually pour in the veal gravy or cream.
Toss the beans in the sauce until heated through.
Remove from heat and quickly stir in the beaten egg yolks and lemon juice.
Serve immediately.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beans + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,474 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young beans
- Form the body of the dish, cooked until tender before being tossed in the sauce.
- Butter
- Provides fat and richness, and forms the base of the roux.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the sauce body when cooked until lightly browned.
- Veal gravy or cream
- Supplies liquid and richness that loosens the roux into a smooth, flavorful sauce.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the sauce when stirred in off the heat, adding silkiness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the fat.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce is too hot when they go in, they can scramble into lumps. Removing the pan from the heat first and stirring quickly keeps the sauce smooth.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, veal, egg, lemon):
- Almondfits better
- Walnutfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, veal, egg, lemon. 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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