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Kidney Beans a LA Lyonnaise

Kidney beans sautéed with onion, parsley, and clarified dripping, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kidney Beans a LA Lyonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the kidney beans overnight.

  2. Boil the beans until tender but not breaking.

  3. Drain the beans thoroughly.

  4. Sprinkle the beans with salt.

  5. Let the beans dry in a colander over an empty pot.

Make the dish

  1. Heat the clarified dripping in a frying pan, then add the grated onion and the chopped parsley.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the beans to the pan when the mixture is hot.

  4. Shake the pan over the heat for about two minutes until everything is well mixed and hot.

  5. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney beans
Form the main body of the dish and give it a soft, starchy texture when cooked through.
Clarified dripping
Adds fat for frying and a rich, savoury flavour that coats the beans.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as it softens in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Let the beans dry before frying. Beans that stay wet will cool the hot fat and steam instead of frying, so they do not take on flavour or colour. Draining and drying them first helps the dripping coat them well.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, pepper):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, 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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