Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the dried white beans overnight.
Combine the beef pieces, broken bones, and bacon in a large soup pot and season the meat with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add 6 quarts of water to the pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off any scum that forms.
Drain the soaked beans.
Cook and serve
Add the drained beans to the pot along with the celery or celery-seed.
Boil slowly until the meat is tender and the beans are dissolved.
Strain the soup into a tureen.
Add small squares of toasted bread to the soup.
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.
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,159 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 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
- Dried white beans
- Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
- Lean fresh beef
- Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth, and becomes tender during slow boiling.
- Bacon
- Adds smoky, savory fat that flavors the broth as it cooks.
- Celery
- Contributes a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavor to the soup.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum after boiling. Scum rising at the first boil contains coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the broth and taste bitter if left in, so skim it off as it forms.
“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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