Name: Lima Beans with Ham
Ingredients: 1 lean ham hock, about 1/4 lb.; 2 Tbs. unsalted butter; 1 tsp. dried sage; 2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley; 1/2 tomato, coarsely chopped; 1 cup chicken broth; 2 carrots, peeled and cut into pieces 2 inches long and 1/2 inch thick; 6 small white boiling onions, cut in half; 2 cups freshly shelled or thawed, frozen lima beans; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

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.

Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,445 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together480 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, parsley, tomato, chicken, carrot, onion):

Thymefits better
Celeryfits better
Garlicfits better
Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, parsley, tomato, chicken, carrot, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Lima Bean	1/2 cup (85g) cooked	108
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Sage	1 tsp ground (0.7g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Lima Beans with Ham