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Succotash

Succotash is a stew of green corn, Lima beans, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lima beans work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 222 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Succotash

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the vegetables

  1. In a pot, combine the green corn and Lima beans.

  2. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and bring to a simmer.

  3. Cook until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with butter, pepper, salt, and a little milk.

  2. Simmer together for a few moments and serve.

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. Corn + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Green corn
Provides the main body, sweetness and tender texture of the dish.
Lima beans
Add starchy body and a creamy, tender texture when simmered.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the vegetables a rounded, silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and a mild creaminess to the finished vegetables.

The step that matters

Cook until tender. Corn and Lima beans need enough simmering to soften fully; undercooked beans stay starchy and firm. Seasoning and serving should wait until they are tender, since the cooking liquid is what carries the flavour.

Swap the lima beans

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

  1. Lima beansthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Peanutfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, 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.

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