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Baked Beans with Pork

A baked bean dish with salt pork, onion, brown sugar, molasses, mustard, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Beans with Pork

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in water.

  2. Drain and rinse the beans, then place them in a pot with fresh water.

Simmer

  1. Add the salt pork and onion, and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Stir in brown sugar, molasses, mustard, black pepper, and salt.

Bake

  1. Transfer to a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours, adding water as needed.

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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Navy beans
Provide the bulk and creamy texture of the finished beans.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory depth that flavors the beans as they cook.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich color to the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce thicken and brown during baking.
Onion
Contributes aroma and savory sweetness as it softens in the pot.

The step that matters

Adding water during baking. Beans can dry out and scorch over a long oven bake. Adding water as needed keeps them moist so the sauce thickens gradually rather than burning.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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