Why it works: Lima beans and butter work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 414 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Boiled Green Lima Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Cover the shelled beans with boiling water.
Boil quickly, then reduce heat to simmer for 45 to 60 minutes until tender.
Pour off some water, then season with salt and butter or oil.
Serve warm.
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.
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Lima beans + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lima beans
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and starchy as they simmer.
- Butter or oil
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cooked beans.
The step that matters
Simmer until tender. Dried or mature beans need a long, gentle simmer so starches soften fully; boiling hard can break skins and leave the centres firm. Keep the heat low and check for tenderness before seasoning.
“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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