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 ↓
Fricasseed Windsor Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Boil and blanch the Windsor beans until tender but not mealy.
Cut the beans into four or eight pieces.
Soak the beans in salt water.
Once the water boils, add the beans with some salt.
Heat the beans in a white sauce until warmed through.
Serve immediately to preserve their green color.
Alternatively, drain the beans when half-cooked and add to broth with butter and flour.
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 + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beans + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,184 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, butter, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Cashew nutfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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