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Puree of Haricot Beans

A smooth puree made from stewed haricot beans, stock, onion, carrot, garlic, parsley, thyme, bacon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Puree of Haricot Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash and pick the haricot beans.

  2. Soak the beans in lukewarm water.

Stew and puree

  1. In a stewpan, combine the soaked beans, stock, onion, carrot, cloves, parsley, thyme, bacon, salt, and pepper.

  2. Stew slowly until the beans are tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve (tamis).

  4. Return the puree to the stewpan and warm it with a little of the stock used for stewing.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Provide the main body and starch that thicken the puree once cooked and sieved.
Stock
Adds savoury flavour and moisture during stewing and when warming the puree.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished puree.
Bacon
Contributes smoky, salty flavour that seasons the beans as they stew.

The step that matters

Passing the mixture through a fine sieve. Sieving breaks down the softened skins and fibres so the puree becomes smooth; skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, butter, thyme, carrot, clove, parsley, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, thyme, carrot, clove, parsley, 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.

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