Name: Broad Beans
Ingredients: Broad beans; Salt; Butter; Pepper

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 ↓

Broad Beans

Ingredients

Broad beans
Salt
Butter
Pepper

Directions

Shell the beans and skin them if they are old.
To skin, place beans in boiling water for a few minutes, then strain.
Cook the beans in fast-boiling salted water for 15-20 minutes until tender.
Remove any scum that rises during cooking.
Drain the beans in a colander.
Return the beans to the saucepan, add butter, salt, and pepper.
Toss until the butter melts and the beans are hot, then serve.

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.

Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).