succotash

{{Infobox food

| name = Succotash

| image = Succotash SJTaylor 28Aug2020.jpg

| cookbook = Succotash

| caption = A "kitchen sink" succotash made with corn, lima beans, okra, andouille, shrimp, tomato, onion, garlic, and basil

| image_size = 250px

| alternate_name = Sohquttahhash

| country = United States and Canada

| region = New England

| creator = Narragansett

| course = Main course

| type = Vegetable dish

| served = Hot

| main_ingredient = Sweet corn, lima beans, butter, salt, tomatoes, bell peppers, black pepper

| variations = Can also be served with kidney beans

| calories = 100

| calories_ref = (approximately)

| other =

| alt = A serving of succotash, prepared with corn, lima beans, and bell peppers.

}}

Succotash is a North American vegetable dish consisting primarily of sweet corn with lima beans or other shell beans. The name succotash is derived from the Narragansett word {{Lang|xnt|sahquttahhash}}, which means "broken corn kernels".{{cite book | title = Natick Dictionary | last = Trumbull | first = James Hammond | url = https://www.nipmuclanguage.org/uploads/5/0/7/7/50775337/natick_dictionary%5B1%5D.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221101171533/https://www.nipmuclanguage.org/uploads/5/0/7/7/50775337/natick_dictionary%5b1%5d.pdf | url-status = usurped | archive-date = November 1, 2022 | publisher = Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology | location = Washington | series = Bulletin 25 | year = 1903 | at = Entry for sohquttahham (page=152) |quote=v.t. he breaks (it) in small pieces, pounds (it) or beats (it) small. The formative tahum according to Howse (Cree Gr. 86), 'implies he beats or batters the object, after the manner of the root.' Inan. pl. sohquttahhamunash, they (grains of corn, Is. 28,28) are broken; otherwise s?hq-, sukq-. Adj. and adv. sohquttahhae, pounded; pl. sohquttahhash, whence the adopted name, succotash. Cf. pohqunnum. [Cree séekwa-tahúm, he beats it into smaller pieces.]}}Trumbull (1903). Entry for *msickquatash (p. 67; archive p. n194): (Narr.) n.pl. 'boiled corn whole' (i.e. mo-soquttahhash, not broken small or pounded?). See soh-quttahham. When broken, soquttahhash without the prefix. Hence the common name succotash, improperly applied, however, to the unbroken corn. Other ingredients may be added, such as onions, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, bell peppers, corned beef, salt pork, or okra.{{cite book | chapter = succotash | title = The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language | edition = 4 | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Company | year = 2004 | access-date = April 28, 2022 | url = http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/succotash }}{{cite book |last1=Bowles |first1=Ella Shannon |title=Secrets of New England Cooking |date=1947 |publisher=Barrows}} Combining a grain with a legume provides a dish that is high in all essential amino acids.{{cite web|url=http://www.livestrong.com/article/538851-nutritional-sources-of-essential-amino-acids/|title=Nutritional Sources of Essential Amino Acids|first=Jan|last=Annigan|access-date=April 28, 2022}}{{cite web|url=http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/organic/essam.html|title=Essential Amino Acids|website=hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu|access-date=April 28, 2022}}

History

Succotash has a long history. It is believed to have been an invention of indigenous peoples in what is now known as New England, though English soldier and explorer Jonathan Carver attributed it to numerous tribes of eastern North America:

One dish however, which answers nearly the same purpose as bread, is in use among the Ottagaumies, the Saukies, and the more eastern nations, where Indian corn grows, which is not only much esteemed by them, but it is reckoned extremely palatable by all the Europeans who enter their dominions. This is composed of their unripe corn as before described, and beans in the same state, boiled together with bears flesh, the fat of which moistens the pulse, and renders it beyond comparison delicious. They call this food Succatosh.Jonathan Carver, Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768 (John Coakley Lettsom, ed.), [https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/49753/pg49753-images.html#Page_263 p.263], (3d ed., London, 1781) (retrieved May 5, 2024).

British colonists adapted the dish as a stew in the 17th century. Composed of ingredients unknown in Europe at the time, it gradually became a standard meal in the cuisine of New England(Paywall) {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/dining/yes-succotash-has-a-luxurious-side.html|title=Yes, Succotash Has a Luxurious Side|work=The New York Times |date=14 August 2015 |access-date=28 April 2022 |last1=Tanis |first1=David }}{{Cite web|url=https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/food/succotash-recipe-with-a-history/|title = Succotash: Recipe with a History|date = 28 July 2015|access-date=28 April 2022}} and is a traditional dish of many Thanksgiving celebrations in the region,Morgan, Diane and John Rizzo. The Thanksgiving Table: Recipes and Ideas to Create Your Own Holiday Tradition. Pg. 122. as well as in Pennsylvania and other states.

Because of the relatively inexpensive and more readily available ingredients, the dish was popular during the Great Depression in the United States.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} It was sometimes cooked in a casserole form, often with a light pie crust on top as in a traditional pot pie.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

After the abolition of slavery in the United States, freed slaves in the American South returned to Africa and introduced the dish to the region.

Preparation

File:Succotash.jpg, instead of lima beans]]

Sweet corn (a form of maize), American beans, tomatoes, and peppers (all New World foods) are the usual ingredients.

Catherine Beecher's 19th-century recipe includes beans boiled with corn cobs from which the kernels have been removed. The kernels are added later, after the beans have boiled for several hours. The corn cobs are removed and the finished stew, in proportions of two parts corn to one part beans, is thickened with flour.

Henry Ward Beecher's recipe, published in an 1846 issue of Western Farmer and Gardner, adds salt pork, which he says is "an essential part of the affair."{{cite book |last=Scharnhorst |first=Gary |title=Literary Eats |publisher=McFarland |page=19}}

In some parts of the American South, any mixture of vegetables prepared with lima beans and topped with lard or butter is considered succotash.

In popular culture

Sylvester the Cat's trademark exclamation is "Thufferin' thuccotash!" Daffy Duck has also been known to use the line on occasion.
Professional wrestler Roman Reigns infamously used the phrase "suffering succotash" during a promo on a 2015 episode of SmackDown.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=yPYLhVvKg6Y&pp=ygUfcm9tYW4gcmVpZ25zIHN1ZmZlcmluIHN1Y2NvdGFzaA%3D%3D |title=Suffering Succotash? #RomanReigns #WTF #SmackDown #2015 |date=2017-08-06 |last=SportsFlicks |access-date=2025-03-26 |via=YouTube}}
The Dee-Lite song "Groove is in the Heart" contains the line "My supper dish, my succotash wish"