Name: Baked Bean Soup
Ingredients: cold baked beans; water; 1 onion, finely chopped; tomato; salt to taste

Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer cold baked beans in twice their bulk of water until soft.
Add the finely chopped onion and cook until nearly done.
Add half as much tomato as there are beans.
Rub the mixture through a strainer and add hot water to reach the desired consistency.
Simmer for a few minutes and season to taste.

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.

Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 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

Baked beans: Provide the main body and starch that thicken the soup when simmered and strained.
Onion: Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it softens during cooking.
Tomato: Adds acidity and flavor, balancing the richness of the beans.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a strainer. Pressing the cooked beans, onion and tomato through a strainer breaks down the solids into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy texture, and the soup's consistency depends on it before hot water is added.