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Broad Beans a LA Poulette

Broad beans cooked with stock, herbs, and seasoned, finished with an egg yolk and cream mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 a LA Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beans

  1. In a pot, combine the shelled broad beans and stock.

  2. Add herbs, pepper, and salt, then cook until the beans are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream together.

  2. Stir the egg yolk mixture into the cooked beans just before serving.

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

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

  2. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Beans + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Beans + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and provide its tender texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and thickens it gently as it warms with the beans.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the sauce's flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk mixture into the cooked beans. Egg yolk thickens when heated but can scramble if the mixture gets too hot or boils. Adding it just before serving, off the heat or at low heat, keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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