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Bean Rarebit

A cheese and bean mixture served hot over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bean Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rarebit

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add salt and paprika, then stir in the milk and mashed beans.

  3. Heat the mixture until hot, then add the grated cheese.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture on toasted bread slices.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor through the sauce.
Mashed beans
Provide body and bulk, thickening the sauce as a substitute for cheese-and-flour structure.
Grated cheese
Melts into the hot mixture, adding savory flavor and a creamy, stringy texture.
Milk
Loosens the mashed beans into a smooth, spreadable sauce.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Lima beansfits better
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, cheese, bread. 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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