Why it works: Lima beans and parsley work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 126 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
Lima Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the lima beans in soft water.
Cook the beans in a small amount of water with a little salt until tender.
Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and add to the beans.
Boil for 10 minutes, then add hot cream and remove from heat.
Flavor with chopped parsley if desired.
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.
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Lima beans + parsleytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together126 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Lima beans + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together152 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Cream + parsleytop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,392 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lima beans, cream):
- Celeryfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lima beans, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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