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White Bean Soup

A simple soup made from soaked white beans, water, pepper, salt, butter, and optionally a mutton or ham bone.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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White Bean Soup

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 ↓

White Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans in cold water overnight.

  2. Put the beans in a saucepan and cover with water, adding more if necessary as they swell.

Make the soup

  1. When the beans are soft, ladle them out and pass through a colander back into the saucepan.

  2. Add pepper, salt, and butter, stirring in a little water if the soup is too thick.

  3. For added flavor, include a boiled mutton or ham bone.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  3. Butter + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

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

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

  5. 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

White beans
Provide the main body of the soup as they soften and break down into a thick purée.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding water as the beans swell. Dried beans absorb a lot of water as they cook, and if they are left uncovered they can be exposed and cook unevenly. Keeping them covered with water ensures they soften evenly and the soup does not become too thick or scorch.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Lima beansfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mutton. 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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