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Lima Bean Patties

A fried patty made from leftover lima beans, egg, parsley, onion juice, breadcrumbs, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lima Bean Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the patties

  1. Press the cold, left-over beans through a fine sieve.

  2. In a bowl, mix the sieved beans with the egg yolk, chopped parsley, and onion juice if desired.

  3. Form the mixture into small cakes or balls.

Coat and fry

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with water.

  2. Dip each cake into the egg white mixture, then roll in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry in deep, hot cottonseed oil 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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + cottonseedtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lima beans + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  4. Lima beans + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together126 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Onion + cottonseedtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lima beans
Form the bulk of the patty, providing the main substance and texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the mashed beans so the cakes hold their shape.
Egg white
Forms a coating that helps breadcrumbs adhere and crisp during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Create a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in deep, hot cottonseed oil until golden brown. Oil that is hot enough sets the crumb coating quickly, so it browns and crisps before the patty absorbs excess oil and falls apart.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lima beans, egg, parsley, cottonseed):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lima beans, egg, parsley, cottonseed. 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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