Name: Green Bean Soup
Ingredients: 1 pound green beans; 4 cups vegetable broth; 1 onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Green Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Trim the ends of the green beans and cut them into 1-inch pieces.

Make the soup

In a pot, sauté the onion and garlic until translucent.
Add the green beans and vegetable broth to the pot.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Green beans + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together197 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Green beans: Provide the main body and vegetal flavor of the soup.
Vegetable broth: Supplies the liquid that cooks the beans and forms the soup base.
Onion: Adds savory sweetness as it softens and turns translucent.
Garlic: Contributes aroma and pungency that mellows during gentle sautéing.