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Bean Soup

A hearty soup made with dried beans, beef stock, onion, carrot, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,443 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans in cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain and wash the beans in fresh water.

Simmer the soup

  1. Put the beans into a soup kettle with the beef stock.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for at least 3 hours.

  3. Two hours before serving, add the sliced onion and carrot.

  4. For a smoother soup, strain through a colander before serving.

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 + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 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

Dried beans
Form the body of the soup as they soften and release starch during long simmering.
Beef stock
Supplies the liquid and savory flavor that the beans cook in.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens into the broth.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness and body as it cooks down in the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the beans gently for at least 3 hours. A rolling boil can break beans apart and cloud the broth, while a gentle simmer lets them soften evenly until tender.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Peanutfits less well
  4. Black-eyed peafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, butter, 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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