Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
String Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break off the tops and bottoms of the string beans and remove the tough fiber.
Cut the beans into 1-inch pieces, wash in cold water, and drain.
Cook and finish
Put the beans into a saucepan of boiling water with a pinch of baking soda and boil until tender.
Add bacon to the beans while boiling to mellow the taste.
Once done, season with butter and pepper; if using bacon, no additional salt is needed.
Add milk and thicken with cornstarch.
Dish and serve.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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 + milktop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,266 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,799 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- String beans
- Main vegetable; boiling until tender gives them their soft texture.
- Baking soda
- Added to the boiling water to help the beans turn tender and keep their color.
- Bacon
- Adds savory, smoky flavor to the beans as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat for a smoother finish.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and moisture to the sauce.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk into a light sauce that coats the beans.
The step that matters
Add milk and thicken with cornstarch. Cornstarch thickens only when heated enough to swell its starch granules, and it can clump if added directly to hot liquid. Mixing it with cold liquid first and stirring while simmering gives a smooth sauce.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, milk):
- Cocoafits better
- Walnutfits about as well
- Lima beansfits about as well
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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