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Okra Succotash

A vegetable stew of okra, tomatoes, lima beans, corn, and butter, simmered together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and lima beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Okra Succotash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes, cut them in half, and remove the seeds.

  2. Chop the tomatoes into smaller pieces and place them in a porcelain-lined kettle.

Cook the succotash

  1. Add the washed and sliced okra, salt, and pepper to the kettle.

  2. Cover the kettle and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Add the young lima beans, cover, and simmer for another 15 minutes.

  4. Add the corn and cook for 20 minutes longer.

  5. Stir in the butter carefully and serve as a side dish with chicken.

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. Okra + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lima beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

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

  5. Okra + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together161 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

Okra
Provides the main body and a thickening texture as it simmers.
Tomatoes
Supply moisture and acidity that combine with the vegetables into a sauce.
Young lima beans
Add a tender, starchy bite that holds its shape during simmering.
Corn
Adds sweetness and bulk to the vegetable mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to finish the dish.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter carefully. Adding butter at the end, off the heat or with gentle stirring, keeps the fat emulsified into the sauce rather than separating and greasy. Overvigorous stirring can also break down the tender vegetables.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, lima beans, butter, 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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