Name: Wax Beans, -maitre D'hotel
Ingredients: 2 cups wax beans, shelled; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon butter; ½ cup Allemande sauce; 2 tablespoons fine chopped parsley

Why it works: Beans and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,376 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Wax Beans, -maitre D'hotel

Ingredients

2 cups wax beans, shelled
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup Allemande sauce
2 tablespoons fine chopped parsley

Directions

Prepare and cook

Wash the shelled beans in cold water.
Boil the beans in lightly salted water with a small piece of butter.
Drain the beans and place them in a saucepan with Allemande sauce.

Finish and serve

Season and toss until well mixed.
Add chopped parsley and a piece of butter before serving hot.

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.

Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,376 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Beans + saucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,184 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,799 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Wax beans: Provide the main vegetable body and tender texture of the dish.
Allemande sauce: Adds richness and a creamy coating that moistens the beans.
Butter: Adds fat for a rich flavour and smooth mouthfeel.