String Bean Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the string beans in water with baking soda until tender.
Chill the beans.
Serve with French dressing or mayonnaise.
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
What each ingredient does
- String beans
- Form the main body of the salad and carry the dressing, becoming tender when boiled.
- Baking soda
- Raises the water's alkalinity, which helps the beans soften and keeps their green color bright.
The step that matters
Boil the beans until tender. Boiling time decides the texture: undercooked beans stay tough and fibrous, while overcooked beans turn dull and mushy. Checking for tenderness during boiling prevents both problems.
“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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