Name: To Keep String Beans and Green Peas
Ingredients: string beans; fine salt; water; butter; black pepper; baking soda (optional)

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 ↓

To Keep String Beans and Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

String the beans and cut them into three pieces.
Pack the beans in wide-mouthed jars, layering with fine salt.
Soak the beans in cold water for at least 24 hours, changing the water until it tastes fresh.
Drain the beans and boil them until tender.
Drain thoroughly to remove excess water.
In a saucepan, combine the beans with butter and black pepper.
Cover and stew the beans until they almost boil.
For green peas, follow the same soaking and cooking method.

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.

Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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