Why it works: Beans and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,211 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Succotash with String or Lima Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the beans into 2‑inch lengths.
Mix the beans and corn thoroughly.
Can and process
Fill into cans and cover with brine.
Exhaust No. 2 cans for 4 minutes and process for 40 minutes at 240 °F (115 °C).
Exhaust No. 3 cans for 5 minutes and process for 55 minutes at 240 °F (115 °C).
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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Beans + corntop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,211 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green, tender beans
- Provide the main vegetable body and tender texture of the succotash.
- Corn
- Adds sweetness and a contrasting texture alongside the beans.
The step that matters
Exhausting the cans before processing. Exhausting drives air out of the cans before sealing and processing. Trapped air can leave under-processed contents and impair vacuum, so timing matters for safe preservation.
“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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