Skip to main content
Main

Haricot Soup

A bean soup made with haricot beans, vegetables, butter, and optional bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Haricot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. If using dried beans, soak them overnight and cook until tender.

  2. In a large pot, combine the beans with diced carrot, onion, leek, celery, and turnip.

Simmer

  1. Add enough water to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter just before serving.

  2. If desired, add cooked bacon for extra flavor.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Provide the main body and starchy texture that thickens the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Onion
Builds a savory, sweet base flavor as it softens during simmering.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and color while softening into the broth.
Leek
Contributes a mild, delicate onion-like aroma and sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmer until the vegetables are tender. Dried beans and root vegetables need enough steady simmering to soften fully. Stopping early leaves starchy, firm pieces and a thin, uneven texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, butter, carrot, leek, celery, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, butter, carrot, leek, celery, turnip. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesLeek SoupLeek Soup31 recipes