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String Beans

String beans cooked with cream, egg yolks, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Break off the tops and bottoms of the beans and string them.

  2. Wash the beans in cold water and drain.

  3. Place the beans in a saucepan with boiling salted water and cook until tender.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the cream and add the butter.

  2. Pour the mixture over the hot beans and mix in the vinegar.

  3. Remove the pan from the heat and steam gently for 6-7 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Transfer to a dish and serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Beans + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture into a silky, coating sauce as they gently set with heat.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and softens the set of the egg yolks for a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy texture and rich flavour to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy sauce and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Steam gently while stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken when heated but scramble if they get too hot or sit still. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the sauce smooth and coating rather than curdled.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, butter, vinegar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, butter, vinegar. 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.

More string beans recipes

Canned 17Pickled 11Creamed 9Boiled 6French 5German 3 See all 97 →

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