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Stewed Lima Beans

A simple stew of Lima beans, onion, butter, and white pepper, simmered in water or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lima beans and onion 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 ↓

Stewed Lima Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beans

  1. Boil slightly salted water in a pot.

  2. Add the Lima beans and onion slices.

  3. Cook until tender.

  4. Drain the beans and discard the onion.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter and enough hot water or stock to moisten the beans.

  2. Season with white pepper.

  3. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

  4. Serve warm.

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 + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Onion + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Lima beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and creamy as they cook.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the beans a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Stock
Adds moisture and savory flavor so the beans stay juicy during simmering.

The step that matters

Cook until tender. Lima beans need enough cooking to soften their starchy interiors fully. Undercooked beans stay dry and mealy, while stopping at the right point keeps them intact and creamy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lima beans, onion, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lima beans, onion, 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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