Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Lima Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Soak the dried Lima beans overnight.
Drain the beans and place them in cold water for a while.
Drain again and put the beans into boiling water.
Cook and dress
Cook the beans until tender, about 2 hours.
Pour off the water and add the milk, butter, pepper, and salt.
Let the beans simmer in the dressing for a few minutes before serving.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Lima beans + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lima beans + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together468 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lima beans + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 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
- Dried lima beans
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and creamy when cooked until tender.
- Rich milk
- Forms a creamy dressing that coats the beans and adds moisture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the dressing.
The step that matters
Simmer in the dressing. Letting the beans simmer gently in the milk and butter lets them absorb the dressing. Boiling hard can break the milk and toughen the beans, so keep the heat low.
Swap the lima beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper):
- Cocoafits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Lima beansthe original
- Almondfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper. 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.
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