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Lima Bean Puree

A creamy puree made from soaked lima beans, water, baking soda, celery, salt, pepper, milk, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lima Bean Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the lima beans overnight.

  2. Drain the water and remove any loose skins.

Cook and puree

  1. Cook the beans in 1 pint of water with baking soda and celery.

  2. Before the beans are tender, add salt and pepper.

  3. Once soft, pass the beans through a puree sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the puree to the heat and stir in milk and flour blended with butter.

  2. Serve hot with croutons.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Lima beans + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lima beans
Provide the main body and starchy base that becomes the puree.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, loosening the puree into a smooth, rich texture.
Flour
Thickens the puree as it heats, giving it body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften.

The step that matters

Pass the beans through a puree sieve once soft. Beans must be fully tender before pureeing; undercooked beans stay grainy and resist sieving. Returning the puree to heat with flour and butter needs gentle stirring so the starch thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, milk, flour, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, milk, flour, 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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