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String Beans, Lyonnaise

String beans sautéed with butter, onion, Espagnole sauce, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

String Beans, Lyonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the string beans as directed in a previous recipe.

  2. In a flat saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the sliced onion and fry lightly until softened.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the prepared string beans to the saucepan.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Stir in the Espagnole sauce and toss over the heat.

  4. When serving, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

  5. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 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

String beans
Form the main body of the dish and absorb the buttery, saucy flavour as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour while the onion softens and the beans cook.
Onion
Softens and turns sweet when fried gently, adding savoury depth to the beans.
Espagnole sauce
Adds a rich, savoury body and glossy coating to the beans.

The step that matters

Fry the onion lightly until softened. Cooking the onion gently over medium heat lets its sugars develop slowly and sweeten without browning or burning. Overheating can turn it bitter and scorch the butter, spoiling the dish's mild, buttery character.

Swap the beans

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

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

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