Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
String Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil the beans
Snap and wash the string beans.
Boil the beans in plenty of water for about 15 minutes.
Drain the beans and return them to about 2 quarts of boiling water.
Boil for 1.5 hours.
Finish and serve
Stir in the butter rubbed into the flour and the sweet cream.
Add salt and pepper just before serving.
Alternatively, boil a piece of salted pork for 1 hour.
Add the beans and boil for 1.5 hours.
For shelled beans, boil for 30 minutes in enough water to cover.
Dress the beans with butter, flour, and sweet cream as above.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 soften through long boiling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the beans.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and cream into a light, smooth dressing.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness, forming a creamy coating with the flour.
The step that matters
Stirring in the butter and flour mixture. Flour rubbed into butter should be stirred into the cream and hot beans gently so it thickens evenly without lumps. Adding it too quickly or without enough stirring can leave floury clumps.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, flour, cream, pork):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, flour, cream, pork. 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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