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A New Way of Cooking Lima Beans

Lima beans simmered in coconut milk, lemon juice, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A New Way of Cooking Lima Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Boil lima beans rapidly in boiling water for 15 minutes, then simmer for 15 minutes, drain and cool.

  2. Remove the outer covering of the beans without breaking them.

Make the coconut milk

  1. Prepare coconut milk by pouring a quart of boiling water over grated coconut, stirring vigorously; when the water begins to cool, squeeze and press out all the fatty substance possible; strain through a cooking napkin.

  2. (Optional) Use the top layer of the coconut milk for salad dressings.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover the beans with coconut milk and simmer for eight minutes.

  2. Season just before serving with salt to taste, a tablespoonful of butter, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

114Calories
1 gProtein
12 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lima beans (in the method)
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when boiled and then simmered.
Coconut milk (in the method)
Adds moisture and richness as the beans simmer, giving a creamy coating.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich flavour when stirred in just before serving.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the coconut and beans.

The step that matters

Cover the beans with coconut milk and simmer for eight minutes. Simmering gently keeps the beans intact and lets them absorb the coconut milk. Boiling hard can break the skins and make the coconut milk separate or turn greasy.

“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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