Why it works: Beans and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,080 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
French Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and prepare the string beans, slicing them finely.
Cook the beans
Boil the beans in plenty of water for 15 minutes.
Drain the beans and pour 2 quarts of boiling water over them.
Boil for 1.5 hours.
Finish
Add ¼ teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons oil mixed with 2 tablespoons flour, and 1 cup sweet cream.
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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Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Beans + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,341 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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, becoming very tender after long boiling.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream and oil mixture so it clings to the beans.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and moisture, forming a creamy coating with the flour.
- Oil
- Carries the flour smoothly into the dish and adds fat for richness.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and oil mixture. Flour mixed into fat must be fully blended before adding to hot liquid, or it forms lumps. Mixing it first in oil helps the flour disperse evenly into the cream.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Cashew nutfits better
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream. 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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