Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
To Keep French Beans All the Year
Ingredients
Directions
Preserve the beans
Gather young, spot-free beans on a dry day.
Clean the beans and dry them.
Layer salt and beans in a large stone jar until full, then cover the jar with salt.
Tie a coarse cloth over the jar, place a board on top and add a weight.
Store the jar in a dry cellar.
Prepare and cook
Wash the beans.
Soak the beans in soft water for 24 hours, changing the water frequently.
Boil the beans without adding salt, along with the white heart of a small cabbage.
Drain the beans.
Chop the cabbage and combine it with the beans in a saucepan.
Add butter rolled in flour, a little pepper, and gravy.
Stew the mixture for 10 minutes.
Serve as a side dish.
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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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + cabbagetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together290 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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).
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
What each ingredient does
- Young french beans
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when soaked and boiled.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the beans during salt storage in the jar.
- Butter
- Adds richness and body to the sauce, with flour helping it thicken.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and gravy into a smoother, richer sauce.
- Good gravy
- Adds savoury depth and liquid to the stewed mixture.
The step that matters
Soaking the preserved beans. Salted beans must soak long enough, with frequent water changes, so excess salt leaches out before cooking; otherwise the dish tastes too salty.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, butter, egg, flour, pepper):
- Chivefits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, egg, flour, 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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