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Baked Beans, with Tomato and Chili Sauce

A preserved bean dish cooked with tomato, chili, sugar, and salt pork, then canned and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Beans, with Tomato and Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the dry beans for 10 to 12 hours.

  2. Boil the beans in water for 1 hour or until soft.

  3. Mix the beans with the tomato, chili peppers, and sugar.

Fill and seal the cans

  1. Fill a can half full with beans.

  2. Place the salt pork in the center.

  3. Fill the can to within ¼ inch of the top.

  4. Seal the can.

  5. Leave a small hole at the top.

Cook and cool

  1. Insert the can in boiling water for 25 minutes, then remove the can.

  2. Seal the hole.

  3. Cook in boiling water for 1½ hours.

  4. Alternatively, cook in calamine or salt water for 1 hour, or in a retort for 45 minutes.

  5. Cool the cans in cold water.

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 + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  4. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

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

Dry beans
Provides the bulk and starchy body of the dish, softening during soaking and boiling.
Tomato
Adds acidity and, once mashed, a thick body that coats the beans.
Chili peppers
Supplies heat and pungent aroma, ground fine so they disperse evenly through the sauce.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomato and the heat of the chili.
Salt pork
Contributes fat and savory flavor as it cooks down into the beans.

The step that matters

Leave a small hole at the top before the heat treatment, then seal it. The small hole lets steam push air out of the can while it heats. Sealing the hole afterwards traps the contents in a vacuum, which keeps the can airtight and prevents spoilage. A fully sealed can with trapped air can build pressure and fail.

“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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