Name: Bean Soup with Nouilles
Ingredients: 2 cups dried beans; 6 cups water; 1 onion, chopped; 2 carrots, diced; 2 celery stalks, diced; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; Nouilles (noodles)

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Bean Soup with Nouilles

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the beans

Soak the beans overnight in water.
Drain and rinse the beans, then place them in a pot with 6 cups of fresh water.

Make the soup

Add the chopped onion, diced carrots, diced celery, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender, about 1-2 hours.

Serve

Cook the nouilles separately according to package instructions.
Serve the soup hot with the nouilles added.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,443 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,159 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans: Form the body of the soup and thicken it as they soften and release starch while simmering.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth as it cooks.
Carrots: Contribute natural sweetness and body to the soup as they soften.
Celery: Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the broth as it simmers.
Noodles: Add starchy bulk and a soft, chewy texture to the finished bowl.

The step that matters

Simmering the beans until tender. Dried beans need a long, gentle simmer to fully soften. Stopping early leaves them firm, since their starches gelatinize slowly, and a hard boil can break them apart. Keep the pot at a steady simmer and test a few beans before serving.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, carrot, celery, pepper):

Parsnipfits better
Turnipfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, carrot, celery, 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.

Carrot Soup134 recipes

Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes

Celery Stew25 recipes

Celery Croquettes16 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Bean Soup with Nouilles