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Baked Soy Beans

A baked dish of soybeans, pork, onion, red pepper, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Soy Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and parboil

  1. Soak soy beans in 2 cups cold water overnight.

  2. Add 2 cups hot water and baking soda to the beans, then bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Cook for 1 hour.

  4. Drain the beans.

  5. Add 2 cups boiling water and vinegar to the beans and boil briskly for 1 hour.

Bake

  1. Transfer the beans to a bean pot.

  2. Add 1 cup water, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, salt, onion, red pepper, and pork to the pot.

  3. Place the pot in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) and bake.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  2. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soy beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long soaking and cooking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften during boiling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the molasses and sauce.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and dark color, deepening browning during slow baking.
Salt pork
Contributes fat and savory flavor that seeps into the beans as they bake.

The step that matters

Boil briskly for 1 hour after adding the vinegar. Beans need sustained, vigorous boiling to become tender; a gentle simmer may leave them firm, and adding acid too early can slow softening, so the boil must be thorough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, vinegar, sauce, molasses, pepper, 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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