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Lima Beans

Lima beans simmered with salt, milk, butter, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lima beans and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 156 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Lima Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beans

  1. Put the Lima beans in a pot and cover with boiling water.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt and boil for about 20 minutes until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the beans and add enough milk to cover them.

  2. Stir in the butter and season with salt and white pepper.

  3. Heat quickly and serve hot.

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. Lima beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Lima beans + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Lima beans + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Milk + beanstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,266 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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 and become tender and creamy when boiled.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the beans a creamy coating.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil until tender. Lima beans must cook fully to become soft and creamy; undercooked beans stay firm and starchy. Timing depends on the beans' size and freshness, so check for tenderness rather than relying only on the clock.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lima beans, milk, beans, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lima beans, milk, beans, 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.

More lima beans recipes

Creamed 13Boiled 8Canned 8Dried 6Stewed 6Baked 3 See all 92 →

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