Succotash facts for kids
Succotash, made with corn, lima beans, okra, andouille sausage, shrimp, tomato, onion, garlic, & basil.
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| Course | Main course |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States and Canada |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Sweet corn, lima beans, butter, salt |
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Look up succotash in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Succotash is a tasty dish made mostly from sweet corn and lima beans. The name comes from the Narragansett word sohquttahhash, which means "broken corn kernels."
Sometimes, other ingredients like potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, or okra are added. This dish is special because it mixes a grain (corn) with a legume (beans). This combination gives you all the important building blocks your body needs, called amino acids.
Succotash was very popular during the Great Depression in the United States. This was because its ingredients were cheap and easy to find. People sometimes baked it like a casserole, often with a light crust on top, similar to a pot pie.
What is Succotash?
Succotash is a traditional dish with a long history. It was first introduced to early European settlers in the 1600s by Native Americans. They shared this stew made with ingredients that were new to Europe at the time.
Over time, succotash became a common meal in New England cooking. It is still a traditional dish for many Thanksgiving celebrations in that area, as well as in other states like Pennsylvania.
How to Make Succotash
In some parts of the American South, any mix of vegetables cooked with lima beans and topped with lard or butter is called succotash. Corn (maize), American beans, tomatoes, and peppers are all foods that originally came from the New World.
Old recipes for succotash show how it was made in the past. For example, a 19th-century recipe by Catherine Beecher involved boiling beans with corn cobs first. The corn kernels were added later, after the beans had cooked for several hours. The corn cobs were then taken out, and the stew was thickened with flour. This recipe used two parts corn to one part beans.
Another recipe from 1846 by Henry Ward Beecher suggested adding salt pork. He believed salt pork was a very important part of the dish.
Fun Facts About Succotash
- The famous cartoon character Sylvester the Cat often says, "Sufferin' succotash!"
- In the TV show Xavier: Renegade Angel, a radio host sometimes says, "Succotash, succotash, call us up, win some cash."
