Name: Puree of White Haricot Beans
Ingredients: 1 quart white haricot beans; broth; 2 small pats fresh butter; 1 teaspoon pounded sugar; ½ pint boiling cream; Conde crusts for serving

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puree of White Haricot Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the puree

Prepare the white haricot beans as for a puree.
Add the broth and pass the mixture through a tammy-cloth.
Pour the puree into a soup pot; if too thick, add a little broth.

Cook and finish

Stir over medium heat until it boils, then reduce to a gentle boil, removing any foam.
Finish by adding the butter, sugar, and boiling cream.
Serve with Conde crusts on a plate.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beans + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,341 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White haricot beans: Provide the main body and starch that give the puree its thick, smooth texture.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished puree.
Boiling cream: Adds fat and creaminess, softening the flavour and smoothing the texture.
Pounded sugar: Adds a light sweetness that balances the savoury beans.

The step that matters

Removing foam while the puree comes to a boil. Foam rising from the starches and proteins in the beans can cloud the puree and leave a coarse texture if left to collect on the surface. Skimming it as the mixture heats keeps the finished puree clean and smooth.

Swap the beans

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

Almondfits better
Filbertfits better
Pistachiofits better
Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream. 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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Puree of White Haricot Beans