Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Turtle Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the beans overnight in 1 quart of water.
In the morning, add the remaining 3 quarts of water and the pork.
Boil steadily for about 4 hours until the beans are soft.
Make the soup
Mash the beans through a colander, then strain through a sieve, discarding the hulls.
Return the mixture to the pot, thicken with flour and butter, and boil once.
Serve
Chop the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and slice the lemon, reserving one slice per person.
Place the chopped yolks and lemon slices in a heated tureen.
Just before serving, pour in the wine and add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.
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 + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turtle beans
- Break down into a thick purée that gives the soup its body.
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the soup as it heats and boils.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the thickened soup.
- Madeira wine
- Adds a fortified, slightly sweet aroma and depth to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Boiling after thickening. Flour must reach a full boil with the butter to swell and fully thicken, and to cook out its raw, pasty taste. Stopping early leaves the soup thin or floury, and adding flour without stirring can cause lumps.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, egg, flour, butter, madeira wine, pepper):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg, flour, butter, madeira wine, 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.
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