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
If using dried beans, soak them overnight.
Cook
Partially cook the beans before adding the corn.
Cook the corn and beans together until tender.
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.
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Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,211 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
- Corn
- Adds sweetness and tender texture to the dish.
- Shelled beans
- Provide the main body and starchy, creamy texture of the dish.
The step that matters
Partially cook the beans before adding the corn. Beans take longer to become tender than corn. Adding them partly cooked first lets both finish together, so the corn does not turn mushy while the beans stay firm.
“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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