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Pork and Beans

A hearty dish of pork and beans simmered and baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and beans 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 ↓

Pork and 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 overnight in 1 gallon of milk-warm water.

  2. Scald and scrape the rind of the pork.

Cook

  1. Boil the pork for 1 hour before adding the beans.

  2. Once the beans boil, pour off the water and add 1 gallon of fresh water.

  3. Boil the beans until tender, adding more water if necessary to prevent scorching.

  4. When the beans are nearly as stiff as mashed potatoes, transfer them to a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Score the pork and place it in the center of the beans.

  2. Brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 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. Pork + beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  2. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Beans + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,266 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Side pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as it cooks and browns on top.
Marrowfat beans
Provide the starchy body of the dish, softening during boiling and thickening into a stiff mash.
Fresh water
Cooks the beans to tenderness after the soaking water is discarded.

The step that matters

Boil the beans until tender, adding water as needed. Beans can scorch on the bottom of the pot if the water runs low, giving a burnt taste. Keeping them covered with liquid lets the starch soften evenly and the beans cook through.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Peanutfits better
  2. Soybeanfits better
  3. Cocoafits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, milk. 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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