Name: Salad of White Beans
Ingredients: 1 pint cold boiled white beans; 2 tablespoons smoked herring; 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives; 1 tablespoon finely chopped chervil; 1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon; 2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar; Cayenne pepper to taste

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Salad of White Beans

Ingredients

1 pint cold boiled white beans
2 tablespoons smoked herring
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1 tablespoon finely chopped chervil
1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
Cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare

Boil the white beans as directed for Red Bean Salad.
Once the beans are cold, add the smoked herring, chives, chervil, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, and cayenne pepper. Mix all ingredients well.

Chill and serve

Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Serve very cold.

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.

Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together824 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Chive + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together370 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chive + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together589 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Beans + chivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together180 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Beans + cherviltop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together60 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

White beans: Form the bulk of the salad and absorb the vinegar dressing as they chill.
Smoked herring: Adds a smoky, salty, savoury flavour that stands out against the beans.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds acidity and tarragon aroma that brighten the beans and herbs.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chive, chervil, tarragon, vinegar, pepper):

Lentilsfits better
Chestnutfits better
Beansthe original
Black-eyed peafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chive, chervil, tarragon, vinegar, pepper. 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.