Why it works: Beans and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,376 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
To Boil Windsor Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shell the beans just before cooking.
Wash and drain the beans.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
Cook and serve
Add the beans and cook until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.
Drain the beans thoroughly and serve immediately.
Serve with a tureen of parsley and butter or plain melted butter.
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 + parsleytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,376 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
-
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,799 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Windsor beans
- Provide the main body and starchy, mildly sweet flavour of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness, fat and flavour that coats the cooked beans.
The step that matters
Drain the beans thoroughly. Leftover cooking water dilutes the butter and makes the beans soggy. Draining well lets the butter cling to the beans and keeps their texture firm.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, butter):
- Chickpeafits better
- Walnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, butter. 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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