Name: Lima Beans with Pimiento and Onion
Ingredients: ½ pimiento, finely chopped; 1 onion, chopped; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 cups lima beans, cooked

Why it works: Onion and lima beans work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 331 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lima Beans with Pimiento and Onion

Ingredients

½ pimiento, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups lima beans, cooked

Directions

Prepare

If using raw pimiento, remove the seeds and chop it.

Cook

In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped onion and pimiento, and fry until softened.
Stir in the cooked lima beans and heat through.

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.

Onion + lima beanstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + lima beanstop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together414 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).