Skip to main content
Main

Lima Bean Loaf

A loaf of soaked lima beans, onion, carrot, rice, and seasonings baked in a bread pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lima Bean Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in cold water.

  2. Drain the beans.

Cook and mash

  1. Cover the beans with boiling water, add onion, carrot, and rice, and cook until the beans are tender.

  2. Drain the mixture, reserving the water for soup stock.

  3. Pass the bean mixture through a meat chopper.

Bake

  1. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

  2. Pack the mixture into a greased bread pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. Rice + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried lima beans
Provide the main body and protein base of the loaf once cooked and mashed.
Rice
Adds bulk and starch that helps the loaf hold its shape when cooled.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firmly when baked.
Oil
Adds fat for moisture and a softer crumb.
Ketchup
Contributes sweetness and acidity, and some browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Passing the beans through a meat chopper. Beans must be fully tender and finely broken down so the loaf binds evenly; coarse or unevenly cooked beans leave pockets that crumble when sliced.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, rice, egg, mustard, ketchup):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, rice, egg, mustard, ketchup. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipes