Three Sisters Succotash
Corn, beans and squash, the Three Sisters of Native American farming, simmered together in a little stock with onion and sweet pepper. No butter, no cream: the dish New England learned from the Narragansett and Wampanoag, before Yankee cooks changed it.
Edited by JP Lambiase
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Succotash is the side on the Thanksgiving table with the clearest Native American roots. Wikipedia says the dish is believed to be an invention of Indigenous peoples of New England, built on the "Three Sisters" (corn, beans and squash grown together), and that colonists in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies learned it in the 1600s; English colonists turned it into a stew, and it became a traditional Thanksgiving dish in New England and Pennsylvania. The name comes from a Southern New England Algonquian language, but what it means is DISPUTED: Wikipedia gives the Narragansett "sahquttahhash", "broken corn kernels", while Yankee Magazine gives the Wampanoag "msíckquatash", "boiled corn kernels" (Aimee Tucker, July 28, 2015:). Yankee says the old dish used tough field corn and native shell beans, usually cranberry beans in New England, plus a little meat or fish, and that sweet corn and lima beans replaced them later. The University of Kansas American Indian Health and Diet Project, whose recipe is adapted here, notes that Euro-Americans changed the dish by cooking the vegetables in lard, meat drippings or butter. By the 1890s the Yankee version had shrunk to corn and beans "seasoned with butter and salt" (Fannie Farmer:).
🇺🇸 The original
Corn, beans and squash, the Three Sisters of Native American farming, simmered together in a little stock with onion and sweet pepper. No butter, no cream: the dish New England learned from the Narragansett and Wampanoag, before Yankee cooks changed it.
🇺🇸 The American version
America's newest classic came out of a 1955 test kitchen: green beans in a creamy mushroom sauce under crisp fried onions. See the Green Bean Casserole from Scratch recipe.
📖 Myth check: Should Cornbread Have Sugar? The North vs South Fight →
Why it works the kitchen science
Cook each sister separately
Beans, squash and corn finish at different times, so boiling them one after another in the same water keeps the beans creamy, the squash in neat cubes and the corn sweet.
Stock, not butter
A half cup of turkey or vegetable stock simmered into the vegetables seasons them all the way through and makes a light sauce, the way the KU recipe does it, without the butter Yankee cooks added later.
🧰 You'll need 5 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the lima beans and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until tender. Lift them out with a slotted spoon.
- Step 2
Add the squash to the same boiling water and cook 5 to 6 minutes, until just tender. Lift it out.
- Step 3
Add the corn and cook 3 minutes (10 minutes for fresh field-style corn, as KU's recipe says). Drain.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat and cook the onion and red pepper 6 to 8 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, if using, for the last minute.
- Step 5
Add the beans, squash, corn and stock to the skillet and cook over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring gently, until hot through and the stock has mostly been absorbed.
- Step 6
Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.
Three Sisters Succotash
Serves 6 · about 6 cups · 40 min total
Beans and corn
- 2 cups (10 ounces) frozen baby lima beans, or cooked fresh shell beans
- 2 cups (10 ounces) frozen or fresh sweet corn kernels
- 2 cups butternut squash in 1/2-inch cubes (about 10 ounces)
- 1/2 cup turkey or vegetable stock
Sautéed vegetables
- 1 tbsp sunflower or olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed (optional; an Old World addition)
- Salt and black pepper
Equipment: Large saucepan, 12-inch skillet, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Slotted spoon or spider
Method
- Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the lima beans and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until tender. Lift them out with a slotted spoon.
- Add the squash to the same boiling water and cook 5 to 6 minutes, until just tender. Lift it out.
- Add the corn and cook 3 minutes (10 minutes for fresh field-style corn, as KU's recipe says). Drain.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat and cook the onion and red pepper 6 to 8 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, if using, for the last minute.
- Add the beans, squash, corn and stock to the skillet and cook over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring gently, until hot through and the stock has mostly been absorbed.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.
Adapted from the University of Kansas American Indian Health and Diet Project, "Succotash" (lima beans, sweet corn, turkey or vegetable stock, with optional sautéed onion, tomato and red pepper). The project gives no serving count or bean cooking time; ours are 6 servings and frozen baby limas. The butternut squash, the third sister, is our addition, following Yankee Magazine's description of squash in succotash; the 1 tbsp of oil for sautéing is ours. KU marks garlic as an Old World ingredient, so it is optional. University of Kansas American Indian Health and Diet Project. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (4)
Tips
- Make-ahead (ours): cook the beans, squash and corn Wednesday, cool and refrigerate them together. On Thursday, sauté the onion and pepper and finish step 5, until steaming.
- For the old winter succotash Yankee describes, use dried corn (hominy) and dried shell beans, soaked and simmered until tender, with pumpkin for the squash.
- Use the stock from your turkey giblets if you have it.
- For the Yankee version, add 2 tbsp butter at the end. For a Southern-style version, add fresh tomatoes and okra; Yankee Magazine lists both among later additions.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- What "succotash" means. Disputed: "broken corn kernels" (Wikipedia, Narragansett sahquttahhash) vs "boiled corn kernels" (Yankee, Wampanoag msíckquatash; Etymonline in search results says "boiled whole kernels of corn").
- Succotash was served at the first Thanksgiving. Disputed: Yankee says most historians consider it a likely dish, but the 1621 menu is largely unknown and no one recorded it.
- Real succotash is lima beans and corn. Disputed: the KU recipe uses limas (a bean first grown in South America); Yankee says New England's old succotash used native shell beans such as cranberry beans, and that limas and sweet corn came later.
- Succotash always had squash. Folklore: Wikipedia and Yankee tie it to the Three Sisters and mention squash or pumpkin in some versions, but many old recipes, including Fannie Farmer's, are corn and beans only.
- Butter made it a Yankee dish. Documented: KU says Euro-Americans added lard, drippings or butter; Farmer's 1896 succotash is "seasoned with butter and salt".
- Succotash was a Great Depression staple. Folklore: Wikipedia tags the claim "citation needed"; Yankee says Americans turned to it in hard times.
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