Name: String Beans, with Fine Herbs
Ingredients: 1 pound string beans; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 shallots, finely chopped; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; A pinch of nutmeg; 2 tablespoons butter (for finishing); 2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped; A few drops of lemon juice

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

String Beans, with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the string beans as directed in a previous recipe.
In a flat saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.
Add the finely chopped shallots and sauté lightly.

Cook and finish

Add the string beans, seasoning with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Toss the beans over the heat until thoroughly warmed.
Remove from heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of butter, parsley, and lemon juice until the butter melts.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

String beans: Form the main body of the dish and carry the flavour of the butter and herbs.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, coating the beans and carrying the herb flavour.
Shallots: Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma when softened gently in butter.
Parsley: Adds fresh, green aroma and a bright finish stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter, parsley, and lemon juice off the heat. Adding the butter and fresh herbs after removing the pan from heat keeps the butter from separating and the parsley from losing its bright colour and aroma.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, lemon):

Chickpeafits better
Pistachiofits better
Chestnutfits better
Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, lemon. 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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String Beans, with Fine Herbs