Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Baked Pork and Beans
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the beans
Pick over and wash the beans, then soak them in plenty of cold water overnight.
Drain the beans and place them in a kettle with plenty of cold water.
Boil the beans until tender.
Bake
Drain the beans again and place them in a stone or earthen pot.
Score the rind of the salt pork and bury it in the middle of the beans, leaving the rind exposed.
Add enough boiling water to cover the beans and pork, plus an additional quarter.
Stir in molasses and mustard if desired.
Cover the pot with a plate or earthen baking dish.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for five hours.
Check occasionally and add boiling water if the level drops below the beans.
Toward the end of baking, uncover the pot to allow the pork to brown.
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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Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Molasses + mustardtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together468 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together491 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried beans
- Form the bulk of the dish and become tender and creamy during the long bake.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor to the beans, and its rind browns when uncovered.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a deep, dark color to the baked beans.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, tangy note that balances the sweetness of the molasses.
The step that matters
Keep the beans covered with liquid during baking. Beans that are exposed to air during a long bake dry out and can toughen on top, so topping up with boiling water keeps them moist and evenly tender. Boiling water keeps the oven's gentle heat from stalling the cooking.
Swap the mustard
The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pork, molasses):
- Potatofits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, molasses. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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