Why it works: Beans and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,799 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Haricot Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the beans in cold water overnight.
Place the soaked beans in a pan with fresh cold water.
Cook and serve
Cook gently for 2 hours.
Add salt and continue cooking until soft.
Strain the beans, add butter, and shake gently.
Serve very hot.
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.
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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
- Haricot beans
- Provide the main body and starchy texture of the dish once cooked until soft.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, coating the beans for a smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Cook gently for 2 hours. Gentle heat lets the beans soften evenly without splitting or breaking apart, while the starches gradually gelatinise into a tender texture.
“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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