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Bean Pie

A baked pie filled with boiled beans, soaked tapioca, herbs, pepper, sea salt, butter, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pie dish, combine boiled beans, soaked tapioca, flavouring herbs, pepper, coarse sea salt, and butter.

  2. Pour in 1 cup of water to create gravy.

  3. Cover with a pie crust.

  4. Bake for about 1 hour until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled beans
Form the bulk of the filling and give it a hearty, substantial texture.
Soaked tapioca
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the filling body and a smooth set.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven, forming the outer structure.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the pie. The crust must seal the filling so steam and liquid stay in while the tapioca thickens the gravy. Baking long enough lets starch fully set and the crust brown properly.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter. 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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