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String Beans, Bretonne

A sautéed string bean dish with onions, butter, vinegar, Espagnole sauce, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

String Beans, Bretonne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

  2. Cut the onions in half, trim the ends, and slice them finely.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and fry the onions until light brown.

  2. Add the vinegar and cook until reduced by two-thirds.

  3. Stir in the Espagnole sauce, string beans, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Cover the saucepan and let simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Frying until light brown builds sweetness and savory depth as the onions soften.
Vinegar
Reducing it by two-thirds concentrates its sharp acidity, balancing the richness of the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Provides body and a rich, savory flavor that coats the beans and onions.
Butter
Fat for frying the onions, adding richness and helping them brown.

The step that matters

Reducing the vinegar by two-thirds. Cooking the vinegar down concentrates its acidity. If it is left too wet, the dish tastes sharp and thin; if over-reduced, it turns harsh and may scorch on the pan base.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, vinegar, sauce, 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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