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Dry White Beans, Robert

A creamy bean dish made with butter, onions, mustard flour, and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dry White Beans, Robert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Cook the beans as directed in a previous recipe.

  2. Drain the beans in a colander.

Make the stew

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Fry the chopped onions until soft.

  3. Drain off the butter.

  4. Add the mustard flour diluted with the Espagnole sauce to the onions.

  5. Stir in the cooked beans.

  6. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  7. Cover the saucepan.

  8. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.

  9. Add a piece of butter.

  10. Toss the beans until melted.

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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 bulk of the stew and a soft, creamy texture once cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and a silky finish when tossed in at the end.
Onions
Soften and add sweetness and savoury depth to the base of the stew.
Mustard flour
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that balances the richness of the butter and sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Contributes body, savoury depth and moisture to the stew.

The step that matters

Simmering the covered stew. Simmering gently with the lid on lets the beans absorb flavour and soften without breaking apart or drying out. Too much heat can scorch the bottom of the pan or make the beans mushy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, butter, mustard, flour, sauce, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, mustard, flour, sauce, pepper, nutmeg. 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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