Name: Haricots Verts. — French Beans
Ingredients: fresh green beans; coarse sea salt; butter; coarse black pepper; chopped blanched parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Haricots Verts. — French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and trim the ends of the green beans.
Boil the beans in salted water until soft.
Drain the beans and transfer them to cold water.
Melt butter in a saucepan, then add the beans, black pepper, and parsley.
Stir and cook over heat until thickened, then serve hot.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Green beans + parsleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together70 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Green beans + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together369 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Green beans + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together154 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).