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Bean Loaf

Bean loaf is a baked loaf made from cooked navy beans, onions, green pepper, eggs, bread crumbs, drippings, sweet milk, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Chop the onions and green pepper finely.

Make and bake the loaf

  1. In a bowl, mix together the cooked navy beans, chopped onions, chopped green pepper, beaten eggs, bread crumbs, drippings, sweet milk, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Mold the mixture into a loaf shape.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until heated through.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, plain or with tomato sauce.

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

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

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Navy beans
Provide the bulk and body of the loaf, setting its texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the loaf holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold together with a softer texture.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.
Drippings
Add fat for richer flavor and a more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Mold the mixture into a loaf shape. The mixture is soft and held together only by beaten egg and crumbs, so it should be packed firmly and evenly. Loose packing can crumble or bake unevenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, egg, bread, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, egg, bread, pepper, milk. 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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