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Lima Beans with Carrots and Potatoes

A stew of lima beans, carrots, and potatoes simmered with salt, vinegar, and sugar, thickened with cornstarch and finished with parsley and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 with Carrots and Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the lima beans in rain or soft water overnight.

Make the stew

  1. Cook the beans for 30 minutes, then add salt and the carrots.

  2. Cook both for another 30 minutes, then add the potatoes.

  3. Cook all together until done.

  4. Thicken the broth with cornstarch, then add chopped parsley and butter.

  5. If desired, add vinegar and sugar to the sauce for flavor.

  6. For a less sweet taste, cook the carrots separately, then add their water to the beans and potatoes.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

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

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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 of the stew and a creamy, starchy texture when cooked.
Carrots
Add sweetness and a soft texture that thickens the stew slightly as they break down.
Potatoes
Add starch that helps give the broth body and a soft, hearty texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the broth into a smooth, glossy sauce when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Thicken the broth with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be heated to thicken. Added to cold liquid it clumps, so it should be mixed into a little cold water first or stirred into simmering broth to avoid lumps.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, beans, potato, parsley, butter, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, beans, potato, parsley, butter, vinegar, sugar. 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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