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Haricot Soup

A bean soup made with haricot beans, tomatoes, onions, celery seed, and tinned meat fat, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Haricot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the haricot beans in water overnight.

  2. Combine the soaked beans, water, and fat in a saucepan.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Add the onions and celery seed.

  5. Boil for 3 hours.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the soup through a sieve.

  2. Mash the mixture to extract flavor.

  3. Stir in the tomatoes.

  4. Add pepper and salt to taste.

  5. Return the soup to the saucepan.

  6. Warm before serving.

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.

  1. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 starch that thicken the soup as they cook and break down.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a bright flavour that balances the rich beans and fat.
Fat from tinned meat
Carries flavour and adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savoury depth as they soften during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Boil for 3 hours. Haricot beans must be fully tender before straining; undercooked beans stay firm and grainy, and they will not mash to give the soup its body.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, tomato, meat, celery, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, meat, celery, pepper. 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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