Name: French-beans
Ingredients: young tender beans; brine (for cucumbers); distilled vinegar

Why it works: Beans and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French-beans

Ingredients

young tender beans
brine (for cucumbers)
distilled vinegar

Directions

Soak young tender beans in brine for two days.
Pour boiling hot distilled vinegar over the beans and cover tightly to retain steam.
Repeat this process every other day until the beans turn green.
Once green, transfer the beans to jars or bottles and fill with the same pickle used for cucumbers.
Seal the jars with bladders or corks.

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 + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,734 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Beans + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,347 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).