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Haricot Bean Soup

A bean soup made with haricot beans, onion, optional bacon or ham bone, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Haricot Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in cold water with a little washing soda.

  2. Drain and wash the beans, then place them in an enamel bowl with 6 cups of cold water and the bacon rinds or ham bone.

Make the soup

  1. Add the chopped onion and simmer until the beans are soft.

  2. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve, adding salt, pepper, and about ½ cup of the cooking liquid.

  3. Bring to a boil, then stir in the milk and butter. Do not boil again.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  3. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Haricot beans
Provide the main body and thickening starch that gives the soup its texture.
Milk
Adds richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder flavour and silkier texture.
Onion
Contributes savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens during simmering.

The step that matters

Do not boil again after adding the milk and butter. Boiling milk after it is added can cause it to curdle and separate, leaving the soup grainy and less smooth.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, ham, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ham, milk, butter, 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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