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Butter Beans

A stew of butter beans simmered with pickled pork, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Butter Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beans

  1. In a kettle, combine the butter beans and water.

  2. Add the pickled pork and bring to a boil.

  3. Cook for 1 hour or more, depending on the age and size of the beans.

  4. Ensure there is not much water left when done.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, add thickening if desired and season with salt, pepper, and butter.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  2. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  3. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Butter + beanstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter beans
Form the body of the stew and soften into a tender, creamy texture as they cook.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savory flavor to the broth as it simmers with the beans.
Water
Cooks the beans and forms the broth that the stew reduces from.

The step that matters

Ensure there is not much water left when done. Beans release starch as they cook, and simmering off excess liquid concentrates the flavor and lets the stew thicken to the intended consistency. Too much liquid leaves a thin, watery stew.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pork, pepper):

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Soybeanfits about as well
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pork, 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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