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Baked Pork and Beans

A baked dish of soaked beans, boiled pork, and molasses cooked in a kettle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Baked Pork and Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Boil soaked beans in water until softened.

  2. Drain water and add fresh boiling water from the kettle.

Bake

  1. Add molasses and the boiled pork to the beans.

  2. Bake uncovered in the same kettle for about 5 hours, adding boiling water as needed.

  3. Serve when done.

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

Beans
Provide the main body and starchy bulk that becomes tender and creamy during long cooking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep caramel-like flavour as it bakes.
Pork
Contributes savoury flavour and richness that seasons the beans as they cook.

The step that matters

Topping up with boiling water during the bake. Long baking evaporates liquid, and the beans can dry out, scorch or stay firm if they are not kept covered in liquid. Adding boiling water rather than cold keeps the cooking temperature steady, so the beans keep softening evenly.

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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