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Boston Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with navy beans, molasses, baking soda, and pickled pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boston 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

  1. Soak the navy beans overnight, then boil them until tender.

  2. Add baking soda and molasses before draining the beans.

Bake

  1. Transfer the beans to a baking dish and place the pickled pork in the center.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours, basting with the cooking liquid as needed. Ensure the beans do not dry out.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + porktop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together825 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Navy beans
Provide the main body and starchy structure that becomes tender and holds the sauce.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a thick, sticky sauce as it bakes.
Baking soda
Raises the pH, helping bean skins soften during boiling.
Pickled pork
Adds savory flavor and fat that seasons the beans as they bake.

The step that matters

Basting and keeping the beans moist. Beans absorb liquid over a long bake and can dry out, and the sauce can scorch or turn stiff. Basting with cooking liquid keeps the beans moist and lets the molasses sauce turn glossy.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, pork):

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits less well
  4. Nutsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, pork. 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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