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 ↓
French Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the French beans in cold water.
Remove stringy parts from the beans.
Cut the beans into thin strips or diamond shapes.
Cook and season
Cook the beans in boiling salted water with a pinch of baking soda for about 20 minutes, lid off.
Strain the beans when tender.
Add a little pepper.
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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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- French beans
- Form the main body of the dish; their fibres soften as they cook.
- Baking soda
- Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping beans soften faster and stay bright green.
The step that matters
Cook the beans with the lid off until just tender. Beans go from crisp to mushy within minutes. Cooking uncovered lets acids escape, which helps the green colour stay bright, and the beans must be checked and strained as soon as they are tender.
“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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