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Beans, Baked, Canned

A canned version of baked beans prepared with pork, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Beans, Baked, Canned

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 245°F (118°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash the dried beans and discard the water.

  2. Soak the beans overnight and discard the water again.

  3. Parboil the beans until soft and discard the water.

Fill the cans

  1. Place the pork in the bottom of the cans.

  2. Add the appropriate quantity of beans to the cans.

  3. Prepare a solution of salt, bicarbonate of soda, and molasses.

  4. Pour the solution into the cans.

  5. Seal the cans.

Process and seal

  1. Boil the sealed cans in an open bath for 30 minutes.

  2. Puncture the cans to release steam and air.

  3. Seal the cans again.

  4. Cook the sealed cans in a retort at 245°F (118°C) for about 1 hour.

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. Pork + molassestop 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

Dried beans
Form the bulk of the dish, softening during soaking and parboiling to become tender.
Pork
Adds savoury, meaty flavour and fat that enriches the beans during processing.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and colour, and deepens the flavour of the sauce.
Bicarbonate of soda
Raises the alkalinity of the soaking and cooking liquid, helping beans soften and brown.

The step that matters

Puncture the cans to release steam and air. Trapped steam and air can build pressure inside sealed cans during heating. Venting before the second seal lets gases escape so the final seal holds and the contents cook evenly.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits less well
  4. Nutsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, molasses. 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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