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Succotash

A stew of lima beans, corn, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lima beans and corn 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 beans

  1. Combine lima beans, boiling water, and 1 teaspoon salt in a stew-pan. Boil gently for 1 hour.

Combine and serve

  1. Add corn, hot milk, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon butter to another stew-pan and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain the beans and season with 1 teaspoon salt, a little pepper, and 1 tablespoon butter.

  3. Stir the beans into the corn and milk mixture and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Serve very hot.

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 + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 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

Lima beans
Provide the main body and starchy texture of the dish as they soften when boiled.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and tender kernels that contrast with the beans.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, binding the beans and corn into a smooth dish.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the corn and milk mixture gently. Milk can scorch on the bottom of a pan and boil over quickly. Keeping the heat low and stirring helps prevent a burnt taste and keeps the milk smooth.

Swap the lima beans

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

  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, milk, pepper, 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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