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Tortilla with French Beans

A French bean tortilla made by sautéing beans, seasoning, and baking beaten eggs over them.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tortilla with French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Cook the French beans until tender and drain them.

  2. Warm the butter in a sauté pan and fry the beans.

  3. Season the beans with salt and pepper.

Make the omelette

  1. Beat the eggs and pour them into the pan.

  2. Bake until the eggs are set and the bottom begins to color.

  3. Turn the tortilla with a plate and let the other side set.

Serve

  1. 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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Beans + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Proteins set as they heat, binding the omelette into a cohesive, tender sheet.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the bottom brown lightly in the pan.
French beans
Provide bulk and a fresh, mildly vegetal flavor that contrasts with the eggs.

The step that matters

Bake until the eggs are set and the bottom begins to color. Egg proteins firm as they heat, but overcooking squeezes out water and makes the eggs dry and rubbery. Stop when the surface is just set and the base is lightly golden.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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