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Bean Porridoe

A hearty beef and bean soup thickened with cornmeal and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Porridoe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Combine beef shank and cold water in a large pot. Skim off foam as it begins to boil.

  2. Boil for at least 6 hours, adding water as needed. Remove the meat and skim off the fat.

  3. Season the broth with salt and pepper. Add the parboiled beans and cook until tender.

Thicken and finish

  1. Mix cornmeal with cold water to create a thickening agent, then add it to the pot.

  2. Continue boiling for an additional hour.

  3. Combine cold baked beans, water, onion, and celery in a pot. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve, then stir in the strained tomatoes and chili sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Thicken the soup by slowly adding melted butter mixed with flour.

  6. Serve hot with croutons.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving the porridge its body.
Baked beans
Break down when sieved, adding body and bean flavor to the soup.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a rounded, savory sweetness to the broth.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the soup and adds richness.
Beef shank
Releases gelatin and flavor into the water, forming a rich broth.

The step that matters

Adding the cornmeal thickener. Cornmeal mixed with cold water first keeps it from clumping; added directly to hot liquid it forms lumps that won't smooth out. Stirring while it boils helps it cook evenly and thicken fully.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, beans, onion, tomato, sauce, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, beans, onion, tomato, sauce, butter. 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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