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 ↓
Canned Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Cook and season
Cook the beans in boiling water for one hour.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Jar and store
Fill jars quite full with the cooked beans.
Seal the jars carefully as directed.
Store in a cool, dry cellar; they will keep for the year round.
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 + beanstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lima beans + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lima beans + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together468 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + beanstop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,799 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lima beans
- Make up the bulk of the dish; their starch softens and thickens as they cook.
- Butter beans
- Add body and a soft, creamy texture as their starch gelatinises during boiling.
- Caseknife beans
- Contribute bulk and texture; their starch softens and holds shape through long cooking.
The step that matters
Seal the jars carefully. A tight seal keeps air and microbes out of the jars. If the seal fails, the beans can spoil instead of keeping through the year.
“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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