Name: Mashed Haricot Beans with Bacon and Gravy
Ingredients: 1 lb boiled haricot beans (or the remains of boiled haricot beans); 1 oz flour; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 oz dripping (or cooking fat); ½ lb bacon (sliced); 1 pint water (or the liquor the beans were boiled in)

Why it works: Beans and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,080 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mashed Haricot Beans with Bacon and Gravy

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 lb boiled haricot beans (or the remains of boiled haricot beans)
1 oz flour
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 oz dripping (or cooking fat)
½ lb bacon (sliced)
1 pint water (or the liquor the beans were boiled in)

Directions

Prepare the beans

Soak fresh beans overnight in cold water, then boil in more cold water for two hours.
Strain the beans through a colander and mash them in the saucepan.
Add seasoning and dripping to the mashed beans.

Cook the bacon and gravy

Fry the bacon until nicely browned.
Arrange the browned bacon on the mashed beans in a hot dish, keeping warm.
Blend the flour into the hot bacon fat.
Gradually stir in half a pint of water or the bean cooking liquor.
Stir until it boils.
Season to taste.
Add vinegar.
Pour the gravy around the mashed beans.

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.

Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,080 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beans + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,347 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans: Form the mashed base and supply the bulk and soft texture of the dish.
Bacon: Adds savoury fat and browned flavour when fried and laid over the beans.
Flour: Thickens the bacon fat and cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.
Dripping: Adds fat for richness and helps carry flavour through the mashed beans.
Vinegar: Adds a sharp acidity that balances the rich fat and starchy beans.

The step that matters

Blending the flour into the hot bacon fat. Flour must be cooked briefly in the hot fat before liquid is added; this roux-style step lets starch swell smoothly, while adding liquid to raw flour or cold fat leads to lumps.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, vinegar):

Lentilsfits better
Cashew nutfits better
Sesamefits better
Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, vinegar. 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.

German Style String Beans7 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Mashed Haricot Beans with Bacon and Gravy