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Baked Beans

A slow-cooked bean dish with salt pork, molasses, mustard, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash and soak the beans in cold water overnight.

  2. Drain the beans and place them in a kettle, covering with cold water.

  3. Add the baking soda and cook gently until the beans are slightly softened.

  4. Drain the water again and transfer the beans to a covered bean pot.

Bake

  1. Mix the molasses and mustard with 1 pint of water, then pour over the beans, adding more water if needed to cover them.

  2. Place the salt pork or other fat on top of the beans and cover the pot.

  3. Bake slowly for 6 to 8 hours in a 300°F (150°C) 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. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,445 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + mustardtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

White beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender and creamy during slow baking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften before baking.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that moistens the beans as they bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color to the sauce as it slowly reduces.

The step that matters

Slow baking in a covered pot. Long, gentle heat lets the beans' starches gelatinize and their skins soften without bursting. Keeping the pot covered and topped up with liquid prevents drying and scorching while the sauce thickens.

“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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