Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Bean Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cook the beans until soft.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, mix the strained yolk of 3 eggs with the oil.
Add mustard, herring milk, and season with salt, sugar, and vinegar to taste.
Assemble and serve
Mix in the cooked, cooled beans and the chopped whites of the 3 hard boiled eggs.
Decorate with sliced herring.
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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Beans + milktop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,266 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Small white beans
- Form the bulk of the salad and provide its starchy, filling body.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Yolks enrich the dressing with fat and creaminess; chopped whites add texture.
- Fine oil
- Carries fat into the yolk mixture, giving the dressing a smooth, rich body.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
- Milk from herrings
- Adds savoury, briny flavour and moisture to the dressing.
The step that matters
Cook the beans until soft. Dried beans that stay firm will not absorb the dressing well and can taste chalky. Cooking them fully softens the starch so they become tender and take on flavour. Cool them before mixing so they do not break down the dressing.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, mustard, vinegar, sugar):
- Sesamefits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Beansthe original
- Almondfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, mustard, vinegar, sugar. 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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