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 ↓
Roasted Green Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Roast the corn
Strip off all the husk from green corn and roast it on a gridiron over a bright fire of coals, turning it as one side is done.
If a wood fire is used, make a clean place in front of the fire, lay the corn down, turn it when one side is done, and serve with salt and butter.
Make the succotash
Take a pint of fresh shelled lima beans, or any large fresh beans, put them in a pot with cold water, rather more than will cover them.
Scrape the kernels from twelve ears of young sweet corn; put the cobs in with the beans and boil from half to three‑quarters of an hour.
Now take out the cobs and put in the scraped corn; boil again fifteen minutes, then season with salt and pepper to taste, a piece of butter the size of an egg and half a cup of cream.
Serve hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Lima Bean | 1/2 cup (85g) cooked | 108 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Corn | 1/2 cup kernels (82g) | 77 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Lima beans + corntop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together222 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Lima beans + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together414 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 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
- Lima beans
- Provide the bulk and firm, starchy body of the dish as they cook.
- Sweet corn
- Adds sweetness and tender texture to the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the finished dish.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the cooked vegetables.
The step that matters
Adding the corn after removing the cobs. Corn kernels are tender and cook quickly, so boiling them only about fifteen minutes keeps them sweet and juicy while the beans finish softening.
Swap the lima beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, cream, corn, pepper):
- Almondfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Lima beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream, corn, pepper. 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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