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Beans, Broad

A boiled broad bean dish with stock, herbs, sugar, egg yolk, cream, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beans, Broad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell enough young, freshly-gathered beans to make 2 pints.

  2. Boil the beans until nearly done, then drain them.

Cook and finish

  1. In a stewpan, combine the beans with the stock, finely minced herbs, and sugar.

  2. Cook the beans until perfectly tender and the liquid has reduced slightly.

  3. Beat the egg yolk with the cream, add to the beans, and heat until just simmering.

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Broad beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender as they simmer in the stock.
Egg yolk
Thickens the cream and stock into a smooth, lightly set sauce when gently heated.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and body, softening the flavour and giving the sauce a silky texture.
Stock or broth
Provides the cooking liquid that flavours the beans and forms the base of the sauce.
Savory herbs
Add aromatic, herbal flavour that cuts through the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently; if the mixture boils, it can curdle and turn grainy. Heat only until just simmering and serve at once.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, sugar, egg, cream, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, sugar, egg, cream, 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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