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Baked Beans in Individual Pots

Baked beans cooked with salt pork, salt, pepper, sugar, and water, served in individual pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and beans 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 Beans in Individual Pots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans as directed for plain pork and beans, then drain and cover with cold water.

  2. Add the salt pork and bring to a boil.

  3. Simmer until the beans are soft.

  4. Remove the pork.

  5. Slice the pork thinly.

  6. Drain the beans, reserving some water.

Thicken and fill

  1. Thicken the reserved water with corn starch.

  2. Alternatively, thicken by rubbing beans through a sieve.

  3. Mix the thickened water with the cooked beans to achieve the desired consistency.

  4. Fill individual pots half full with beans.

  5. Add a slice of pork.

  6. Finish filling the pots with beans.

Glaze and brown

  1. Moisten the surface with a solution of sugar in water.

  2. Brown the top in a gas oven.

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. Pork + beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  2. Beans + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,587 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pork + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together791 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Beans + white peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,579 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Form the bulk of the dish and set into a soft, tender body when simmered.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as they cook.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, once browned on the surface, contributes to caramelized color.
Corn starch (in the method)
Thickens the reserved cooking water so the beans reach the desired consistency.

The step that matters

Brown the top in a gas oven. Sugar browns through the Maillard reaction and caramelization at high heat, so the surface can scorch quickly if the oven runs too hot or the pots are left too long.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, beans, sugar. 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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