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Lima Bean Soup

A hearty soup made from lima beans, vegetables, and milk, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lima Bean Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the soup base

  1. Put the beans in 1 quart of water with parsley, celery, onion, clove, and green pepper.

  2. Boil for 45 minutes.

  3. Press the mixture through a colander, saving the liquid.

  4. Return the liquid to the kettle.

Finish the soup

  1. Rub together the butter and flour, then stir into the beans.

  2. Add 1 pint of milk.

  3. Press the mixture again through a puree sieve.

  4. Put into a pot.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Bring to a boil.

Make and serve the croutons

  1. Lightly butter slices of bread, cut into dice, and remove crusts.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F) until golden brown.

  3. Serve with croutons.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Freshly shelled lima beans
Provide the main body and starchy, creamy texture of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when rubbed with butter and stirred into the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the thickened soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Rub the butter and flour together before stirring into the beans. Mixing flour with fat first coats the starch granules so they disperse evenly instead of clumping, giving a smooth, lump-free thickening.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, celery, parsley, clove, butter, pepper, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, celery, parsley, clove, butter, pepper, onion. 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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