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 ↓
Dried Corn Succotash
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the dried green corn in water until tender, about 1 hour.
Add sugar, salt, butter, and milk or cream.
Season with pepper to taste.
Optionally, add scalded and dried green beans.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried green corn
- Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender and starchy when simmered.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the savory corn flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
- Milk or cream
- Adds moisture and richness, making the corn creamy.
The step that matters
Simmer until fully tender. Dried corn stays firm and chewy if it is taken off the heat too early. Its starch only softens fully with sustained simmering, so the kernels must be tender before the dairy and seasonings are added.
“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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