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Succotash

A bean and corn dish cooked with cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans overnight in cold water.

  2. Cook the beans in boiling water until tender.

Combine and serve

  1. Drain the beans and add the corn.

  2. Reheat the mixture and season with cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

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. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Shelled beans
Provide the main body and starchy, filling texture of the dish.
Corn
Adds sweetness and tender kernels that contrast with the beans.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the mixture a silkier texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the beans until tender. Dried or shelled beans need enough time in boiling water for starches to soften fully. Undercooked beans stay firm and chalky, while the sugars and starches in the corn cook quickly, so beans must be done before combining.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, cream, butter, 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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