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To Ragout French Beans

A creamy ragout of French beans, onions, butter, flour, egg yolk, cream, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Ragout French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Boil the French beans until tender.

Make the ragout

  1. In a stewpan, melt a piece of butter, then dredge in some flour once the butter is melted.

  2. Slice and fry the onion in the butter until brown.

  3. Add the beans, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; boil briefly.

  4. Stir in the egg yolk and cream; mix for 1-2 minutes.

  5. Serve the ragout.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beans + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

French beans
Form the main body of the ragout and provide its vegetable texture.
Butter
Carries the onion's browning and gives the sauce a rich, fatty flavour.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that helps bind the ragout.
Onion
Browns in the butter to add sweetness and savoury depth.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the cream into a smooth, binding sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can scramble if the mixture boils. Keep the heat low and stir constantly so the sauce becomes smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, egg, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, egg, cream. 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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