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Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with salt pork, sea salt, and optional molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Baked Beans

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans in water overnight.

  2. If desired, drain the water and add fresh water.

Bake

  1. Place the pot in a heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour.

  2. Remove any loose water from the pot.

  3. Place the salt pork on top of the beans.

  4. Add the coarse sea salt.

  5. Return the pot to the oven and cook the beans for all day and night if desired.

Finish

  1. Add molasses for sweetness if you like.

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

Beans
Their starch softens slowly during long cooking, giving the dish a tender, creamy body.
Salt pork
Its fat renders into the beans, adding richness and savory flavor as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep brown color to the finished beans.

The step that matters

Returning the pot to the oven for the long cook. Beans need extended, gentle cooking for their starches to fully soften and flavors to meld. Too short a cook leaves them firm, and the dish can dry out or scorch if the pot is left unattended.

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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