Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Lima Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the beans and pour boiling water over them to partly cook.
Drain the water and add more boiling water and salt to taste.
Cook until tender, then drain off the water.
Add ½ cup of cream and 1 tablespoon of butter.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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 + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together152 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lima beans
- Form the main body of the dish, providing starch and a tender, soft texture when cooked.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the beans with a smooth, silky texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a rounded, savoury flavour and a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Cook until tender, then drain off the water. Beans must be fully tender before draining, because starch softens slowly and undercooked beans stay firm and chalky. Draining promptly prevents them from becoming watery once the cream is added.
Swap the lima beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter):
- Filbertfits better
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Lima beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter. 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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