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Haricot Soup

A bean soup made with haricot beans, vegetables, butter, and optional bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Haricot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Soak dried haricot beans overnight, then drain them. If using fresh beans, skip the soaking and draining.

Make the soup

  1. Combine beans with water in a large pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the carrot, onion, leek, celery, and turnip to the pot, then reduce heat.

  3. Simmer until the beans are tender, about 1-2 hours for dried beans or 30-45 minutes for fresh beans.

  4. If desired, add the bacon to the pot during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter just 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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 starchy, creamy texture of the soup as they cook until tender.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Onion
Builds the savory aromatic base of the soup as it softens during simmering.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and color while softening into the broth.
Leek
Contributes a mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the beans are tender. Dried beans contain starches that stay firm and can be hard to digest if undercooked. Simmering gently until fully tender ensures a creamy texture and safe, pleasant eating, so test a few beans before serving.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, butter, carrot, leek, celery, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, carrot, leek, celery, turnip. 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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