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Succotash

Succotash is a vegetable stew of corn, beans, butter, milk, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and beans 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. Cut the corn from the cob, bruising as little as possible.

  2. Put the corn and beans in a pot with enough salted hot water to cover them.

Cook

  1. Stew gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Turn off nearly all the water and add the milk.

  3. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

  4. Add the floured butter, pepper, and salt, and stew for 10 more minutes.

  5. Serve in a deep dish.

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 + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 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. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 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

Corn
Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the dish.
String beans
Add texture and a fresh, green bite that contrasts with the soft corn.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess as it simmers with the vegetables.
Butter
Adds richness, and its flour coating helps thicken the liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering with the milk. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so stirring during the simmer prevents burning and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, butter, flour, milk, 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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