Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Pork and Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the pork
Place the pork in a large pot and cover it with warm water.
Bring the water to a boil, then add the onion, carrot, turnip, and peppercorns.
Reduce heat and simmer gently for about 2 hours.
Cook the beans and serve
Half an hour before the pork is done, add the beans to salted boiling water.
Boil the beans gently for 25 to 30 minutes, then drain them.
Pour parsley sauce over the beans and serve the pork and beans on separate dishes.
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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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,842 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + beanstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together400 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,443 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pickled pork shoulder
- Provides the main meat, whose fat and connective tissue soften into moist, tender meat during long simmering.
- Windsor beans
- Supply the starchy bulk of the dish, becoming soft and mealy when boiled.
- Onion
- Adds savory depth to the cooking liquid as it simmers with the pork.
- Carrot
- Adds gentle sweetness and aroma to the simmering broth.
The step that matters
Boil the beans gently for 25 to 30 minutes. Vigorous boiling can break beans apart and make them mushy, while gentle simmering keeps them whole and evenly cooked.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, carrot, turnip, beans, parsley, sauce):
- Parsnipfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, carrot, turnip, beans, parsley, sauce. 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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