Name: French Beans
Ingredients: 1 quart young French beans; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black 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 ↓

French Beans

Ingredients

1 quart young French beans
2 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Prepare

Trim the beans by cutting off the fibrous edges.
Shred the beans into fine shreds.

Cook and serve

Boil the beans for about 15 minutes until tender.
Drain the beans in a colander.
Place the beans in a serving dish, add butter on top, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

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).