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Lima Beans

A simple boiled and mashed lima bean dish seasoned with butter, pepper, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lima Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Soak the lima beans overnight.

  2. Wash and boil the beans in salted water for several hours.

  3. Add more water as it evaporates.

  4. When done, boil down until quite dry.

Mash and serve

  1. Mash the beans finely, adding a little butter, pepper, and milk.

  2. Be careful not to let them burn towards the end.

  3. Leftovers can be packed in a dish, sliced, and fried.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lima beans + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

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

  4. Lima beans + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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
Provide the starchy base that softens into a thick, mashable texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, smoothing the mashed beans.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the mashed beans.

The step that matters

Boil down until quite dry, without burning. As water evaporates, the starches concentrate and the beans can scorch on the bottom of the pot. Stirring and adding water as needed keeps them from sticking and burning before mashing.

Swap the lima beans

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

  1. Cocoafits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Lima beansthe original
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, milk. 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.

More lima beans recipes

Creamed 13Boiled 8Canned 8Dried 6Stewed 6Baked 3 See all 92 →

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