Name: Butter Bean Patties
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked butter beans, pressed through a fine sieve; 1 egg yolk; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; ½ teaspoon onion juice (optional); 1 egg white, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water; Bread crumbs for coating; Cottonseed oil or olive oil for frying

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Butter Bean Patties

Ingredients

2 cups cooked butter beans, pressed through a fine sieve
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
½ teaspoon onion juice (optional)
1 egg white, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Bread crumbs for coating
Cottonseed oil or olive oil for frying

Directions

Prepare

Press the cooked butter beans through a fine sieve into a bowl.
Add the egg yolk, chopped parsley, and onion juice to the beans and mix well.
Form the mixture into small cakes or balls.

Coat and fry

Dip each cake in the beaten egg white, then roll in bread crumbs.
Fry the patties in deep, hot oil until golden brown.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,376 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + cottonseedtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter beans: Provide the main body of the patties once pressed smooth.
Egg yolk: Binds the bean mixture so the patties hold their shape.
Egg white: Forms a coating that helps the bread crumbs stick to the patties.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden crust when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in deep, hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy while the patties may fall apart. Hot oil sets the crumb crust quickly and browns it evenly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beans, egg, parsley, bread, cottonseed):

Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beans, egg, parsley, bread, cottonseed. 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Butter Bean Patties