Name: Boiled Dried Beans
Ingredients: Dried beans; Boiling water; Cream (optional); Soup bone or beef/mutton rib (optional)

Why it works: Beans and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,134 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Dried Beans

Ingredients

Dried beans
Boiling water
Cream (optional)
Soup bone or beef/mutton rib (optional)

Directions

Sort the dried beans, discarding any discolored ones.
Wash the beans thoroughly in several waters.
If the beans are a year old, cover with boiling water and parboil for 10 minutes, then drain.
For fresh beans, drop them into boiling water and boil briskly for 30 minutes.
Reduce heat and simmer, adding more boiling water as needed, until the beans are tender but not falling apart, about 2 to 3 hours.
If desired, add a little cream one minute before serving.
Optionally, boil a soup bone or a piece of beef or mutton rib with the beans for added flavor.

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 + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,134 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,341 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Cream + beeftop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,128 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).