Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Baked Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Mash the baked beans thoroughly.
Add the minced onion and water, then bring to a boil.
Stir in the chopped hard boiled egg and lemon pieces.
In a serving dish, combine the butter, salt, sugar, and minced onion.
Remove the can of corn from the water, open it, and pour the corn over the ingredients in the bowl.
Mix well and serve immediately.
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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Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,242 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,474 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, egg, lemon, butter, sugar):
- Asparagusfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, egg, lemon, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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