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Baked Beans

Beans baked with molasses, brown sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, and salt pork.

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°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 place beans in a pot with fresh water.

Bake and serve

  1. Add onion, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper.

  2. Stir in the diced salt pork.

  3. Cover and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 6-8 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. Onion + porktop 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

Dried beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender during long, slow baking.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and rich flavor, and helps color the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce thicken and caramelize slightly during baking.
Salt pork
Contributes fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as it renders.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor that deepens as the beans bake slowly.

The step that matters

Keeping the beans covered and topped up with water. Beans cook for hours at low heat, and dried beans need enough liquid to soften evenly. If the liquid evaporates, the beans can dry out, scorch, or stay firm in spots.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, molasses, sugar, mustard, pepper, pork. 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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Boston 154with Pork 8Canadian 8in Earthen Pots 3Chicago 3New England 3 See all 214 →

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