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French Beans

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

French Beans

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut off the ends and stalks of the French beans and divide them in half or shred them.

  2. Soak the beans in salt water until the saucepan boils, then add them with some salt.

  3. Once cooked, serve immediately to preserve their green color.

  4. For a richer flavor, drain the beans when half done, add 2 tablespoons of strained broth, cream, butter, and flour, and finish cooking.

  5. Alternatively, mince and stew boiled beans in beef gravy or place them in a dripping pan under roasting meat with pepper and salt.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beans + chivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together180 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, flour, pepper, vinegar, chive, parsley):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Lentilsfits about as well
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, flour, pepper, vinegar, chive, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More french beans recipes

Boiled 29Pickled 12Preserved 9Plain 4Stewed 4Creamed 3 See all 54 →

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