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Succotash

Succotash is a dish of green sweet corn, Lima beans, optional salt pork, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

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

  2. If using, add the salt pork to the pot.

  3. Cover the pot with water.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Reduce the heat.

  6. Simmer until the beans are tender, about 20-30 minutes.

  7. Season with coarse sea salt to taste before serving.

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. Corn + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

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

  3. Lima beans + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together139 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green sweet corn
Provides sweetness and tender kernels that soften gently during simmering.
Lima beans
Supply starch and a creamy, tender texture as they simmer.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and smoky flavor to the cooking liquid.

Swap the lima beans

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Lima beansthe original
  4. Soybeanfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, pork. 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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