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Lima Beans, Macedoine

A creamy lima bean dish with mushrooms, artichokes, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and artichoke share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Lima Beans, Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped shallots and sliced mushrooms, cover, and cook lightly.

  3. Stir in the flour and gradually add the white broth, mixing until smooth.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add the parsley faggot and the cooked lima beans, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes.

  2. Remove the faggot and stir in the boiled artichoke bottoms.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

  4. Before serving, garnish with chopped parsley or chives.

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. Shallot + artichoketop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + artichoketop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lima beans
Form the body of the dish, becoming tender and filling the macedone with bulk.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the shallot and mushroom flavour into the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
White broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving moisture and savoury depth.
Artichoke bottoms
Add a tender texture and mild, distinct flavour to the finished dish.
Shallots
Contribute a gentle, sweet aromatic onion flavour when softened in butter.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the butter and broth. If the flour is added without enough stirring, or the broth goes in too quickly, lumps can form. Mixing well and adding the broth gradually lets the starch dissolve evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, mushroom, flour, parsley, summer savory, artichoke):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, mushroom, flour, parsley, summer savory, artichoke. 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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