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Puree of Dry White Beans, with Celery

A puree made from cooked dry white beans blended with cream, topped with glazed celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,159 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Puree of Dry White Beans, with Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. Cook the dry white beans until soft.

  2. Rub the cooked beans through a sieve to make a puree.

  3. Combine the puree with cream in a flat saucepan.

  4. Reduce the mixture to desired consistency.

Prepare the celery and finish

  1. Cook the celery julienne in a small amount of water until tender.

  2. Glaze the cooked celery.

  3. Add the glazed celery to the puree and mix well.

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 + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Cream + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Beans + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry white beans
Provide the starchy base that thickens into a smooth puree when cooked and sieved.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the puree a smooth, silky texture.
Celery
Adds a fresh, slightly vegetal flavor and crisp-tender texture to the finished puree.

The step that matters

Reduce the mixture to desired consistency. Simmering evaporates water and concentrates the puree, so it thickens gradually. Reducing too far makes it stiff, while stopping early leaves it thin and runny. Check the texture as it cooks.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, celery):

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, celery. 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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