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 Beans
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the beans
Wash the beans and soak them overnight.
Parboil the beans until the skins loosen, then remove as much skin as possible.
Bake
Place the beans in a bean pot with the pickled pork, molasses, and mustard. Pour in enough water to cover the beans.
Cover with a lid and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 4 hours.
Remove the lid, add more salt if needed, and let 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
- Soup beans
- Form the main body of the dish and absorb the sweet, savory liquid as they bake.
- Pickled pork or smoked bacon
- Adds savory, smoky flavor and fat that enriches the beans during slow baking.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the beans brown at the surface.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, tangy note that balances the sweetness of the molasses.
The step that matters
Remove the lid and let brown. Without the lid the surface dries and the sugars in the molasses caramelize, so the beans develop color and a richer flavor. Adding salt only at this stage lets you adjust seasoning after the pork has released its salt.
“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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