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Bean Soup

A simple soup made with small white beans, water, pepper, salt, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in water.

  2. In the morning, boil the beans until soft.

  3. Drain the beans using a colander.

Finish and serve

  1. Add pepper, salt, and milk just before serving.

  2. Adjust with more water if needed.

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 + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,266 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Small white beans
Provide the bulk and body of the soup as their starch softens during soaking and boiling.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild richness to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Add the milk just before serving. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot and separate or curdle if it is kept boiling for long. Adding it at the end, over gentle heat, keeps it smooth and fresh-tasting.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Cocoafits about as well
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Soybeanfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk. 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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