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Kidney Beans a LA Lyonnaise

A sautéed kidney bean dish with onions, parsley, and clarified dripping, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kidney Beans a LA Lyonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the kidney beans overnight and then boil them until tender but not breaking.

  2. Drain the beans thoroughly and sprinkle with salt.

  3. Let them dry in a colander over an empty pot.

Cook and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat the clarified dripping with the grated onion and chopped parsley.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste, then add the beans when the mixture is hissing hot.

  3. Shake the pan over the heat for about two minutes until well mixed and hot, then 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Kidney beans
Provide the main body and starchy texture of the dish once cooked until tender.
Clarified dripping
Adds rich fat that carries flavour and coats the beans as they heat.
Grated onion
Softens in the hot fat, adding sweetness and savoury aroma to the beans.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the beans before frying. Surface water would cool the hot fat and steam the beans instead of letting them warm and coat evenly in the dripping. Drying them well helps the fat cling and keeps the dish from becoming watery.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, pepper):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, pepper. 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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