Skip to main content
Main

Vegetable Pot Pie

A baked dish of lima beans, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, celery, onions, and a milk‑flour sauce topped with biscuits.

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

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Pot Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Wash the lima beans and soak them in water.

  2. Add more water, celery, onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook on low heat until done.

Assemble

  1. In a large baking dish, layer the beans, corn, tomatoes, and parboiled, sliced potatoes.

  2. Repeat layers until the dish is almost full.

  3. Mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of flour until smooth.

  4. Pour the milk‑flour mixture over the layers.

Bake and top

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  2. Top with baking powder biscuits.

  3. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Lima beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 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

Lima beans
Provide the bulk and starchy body of the filling.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, helping the layers hold together as they bake.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the layers.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that sets into a sauce as it bakes.
Tomatoes
Contribute moisture and acidity to the filling.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, corn, potato, celery, onion, pepper, flour):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, corn, potato, celery, onion, pepper, flour. 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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes