Succotash
A dish the colonists adopted from the Native peoples of New England — the name itself comes from the Narragansett language. It pairs corn with beans, and often with squash or courgette too: plants that were grown together in the same field. The secret of good succotash lies in a detail that is easy to forget: after cutting off the kernels, the cob is scraped with the back of a knife, pressing out a milky liquid that thickens the whole dish without cream.
Your own work in that: 2 min.
- Cutting and scraping the cobs 10 min
- Bacon 10 min
- Vegetables and corn 13 min
- Combining 5 min
- Serving 2 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCut the kernels off the cobs
Stand each cob upright in a large bowl and cut the kernels off with a knife, working downwards. The bowl stops the kernels scattering across the kitchen — the simplest advice in this recipe and the most practical.
Ingredients: 5 pcs corn · 300 g lima beans · 120 g bacon · 40 g butter · 1 pcs onion
Cob upright in a bowl — the kernels stay put.Scrape the milk from the cobs
Run the back of the knife down each stripped cob, collecting the milky liquid. Each cob gives a tablespoon or two. It is what thickens succotash — without it the dish is simply a mixture of vegetables.
Ingredients: 5 pcs corn · 300 g lima beans · 120 g bacon · 40 g butter · 1 pcs onion
Corn milk thickens the dish in place of cream.Render the bacon and set it aside
Put the bacon in a cold pan and cook over medium heat for 8–10 minutes, until the fat renders and it crisps. Lift it onto paper and leave the fat in the pan — everything else fries in it.
Ingredients: 5 pcs corn · 300 g lima beans · 120 g bacon · 40 g butter · 1 pcs onion
Soften the onion and pepper
Add the onion and pepper to the bacon fat and fry 5 minutes, then add the garlic and courgette for another 3. The courgette goes later — it breaks down faster than pepper and cooked longer turns to mush.
Ingredients: 250 g cherry tomatoes · 1 pcs red pepper · 1 pcs courgette · 2 cloves garlic
Sear the corn over high heat
Raise the heat, add the butter and corn and cook 5 minutes, stirring rarely, until some kernels char. Stirring rarely is deliberate: the kernels need contact with the hot pan to pick up that toasted flavour.
Ingredients: 5 pcs corn · 300 g lima beans · 120 g bacon · 40 g butter · 1 pcs onion
Stir rarely — some kernels should char.Add beans, corn milk and tomatoes
Add the beans, pour in the collected corn milk and add the halved tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, until the milk thickens and coats the vegetables. The tomatoes should soften but not collapse.
Ingredients: 250 g cherry tomatoes · 1 pcs red pepper · 1 pcs courgette · 2 cloves garlic
Season with vinegar and herbs
Take off the heat, add a tablespoon of cider vinegar, salt, pepper, basil and chives, and scatter the crisp bacon over the top. The vinegar is essential — corn and butter are sweet, and without acid the dish turns cloying.
Ingredients: 20 pcs basil · 3 tbsp chives · 1 tbsp cider vinegar · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Before you start
The three sisters
Corn, beans and squash are the ‘three sisters’ — a Native American planting method in which corn supports the beans, beans enrich the soil with nitrogen and squash shades the ground. Succotash brings plants from the same field together on the plate.
Frozen corn in winter
Frozen corn works but gives no milk — add 3 tablespoons of cream for similar body. Thaw it and pat it thoroughly dry, then cook it in a very hot pan; wet corn weeps and steams instead of browning.
Two days in the fridge
Succotash keeps two days in the fridge and is good cold, as a salad. Keep the bacon separate and add it only when serving — after a night in the salad it softens and loses its crunch.
