Skip to main content
Main

Pork and String Beans

A dish of string beans cooked with pork or beef, finished with milk, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Pork and String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. String and cut the beans into small pieces.

  2. Place the pork or beef in a kettle of water.

Cook

  1. Boil the water, then change it after it has boiled once.

  2. Add the beans and cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Let nearly all the water simmer away.

Finish

  1. Transfer to a dish and add milk, butter, pepper, and salt 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

String beans
Form the main body of the dish, softening into a tender texture during slow cooking.
Lean salt pork or beef
Its fat and juices flavour the beans as they simmer.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich body to the finished dish.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Changing the water after the first boil. The first boil with the pork draws out much of its salt and surface impurities. Replacing that water keeps the final dish from becoming overly salty and cloudy, so the beans taste of the pork rather than of brine.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Soybeanfits about as well
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, milk, butter, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesGerman Style String BeansGerman Style String Beans7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes