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Kidney-Bean Broth

A broth made from soaked kidney beans, onion, parsley, and water, seasoned with pepper and sea salt, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kidney-Bean Broth

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Soak the kidney beans in water overnight.

  2. In a pot, combine the soaked beans, parsley, onion, and water.

  3. Stew the mixture for about 6 hours.

  4. Strain the broth without mashing the beans.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the broth to the pot and add finely chopped parsley and onion.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes and serve with toasted bread.

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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Kidney beans + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney beans
Break down during stewing to give the broth body and a starchy, full texture.
Onion
Releases savory sweetness and aroma into the broth as it stews.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, green aroma that brightens the finished broth.

The step that matters

Strain without mashing the beans. Pressing or mashing the beans breaks their skins and releases extra starch and fine particles, which cloud the broth and make it thicker and less clear. Straining gently keeps the liquid clear and light.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, onion, pepper, bread):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, onion, pepper, bread. 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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