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How to Bake Beans in Pots

A method for baking beans with salt pork, molasses, and seasonings in earthen pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

How to Bake Beans in Pots

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash the beans in cold water and soak them in fresh water overnight.

  2. Drain the beans and place them in a saucepan with fresh water.

  3. Add the washed salt pork and boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Drain the beans in a colander.

Season and fill the pots

  1. Put the beans in a pan.

  2. Season the beans with salt and pepper.

  3. Mix in the molasses thoroughly.

  4. Transfer the beans to earthen pots.

  5. Place a piece of pork in the center of each pot.

  6. Moisten with enough boiling water to cover the beans.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) overnight.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 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

Beans
Form the bulk of the dish and, once cooked slowly, become soft and creamy.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seeps into the beans during long cooking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the beans brown during baking.

The step that matters

Long, slow baking with enough liquid. Beans must stay covered with liquid during the long, low-heat bake. Gentle heat lets the starches soften and the flavors blend without scorching or drying out.

“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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