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 ↓
Yankee Baked Pork and Beans
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Parboil the beans
Combine beans, cold water, and baking soda in a pot and bring to a boil.
Drain the beans and return them to the pot with boiling water, then add the fat salt pork.
Boil gently until the beans are nearly tender, ensuring there is enough liquid.
Season and bake
Season the beans with ginger, sugar, tomato ketchup, white pepper, and salt.
Score the rind of the pork and place it in the center of a baking dish, then pour the beans around it.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the pork rind is crisp, about 45 minutes.
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.
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Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,713 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together260 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beans + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together609 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Ginger + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,843 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
- Beans
- Provide the bulk and starchy body of the dish, becoming tender and creamy when cooked.
- Baking soda
- Raises the cooking water's pH, helping the beans soften more quickly during boiling.
- Fat salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor to the beans, and its scored rind crisps in the oven.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity that give the beans their characteristic tangy-sweet flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomato ketchup.
The step that matters
Boil gently until the beans are nearly tender, ensuring there is enough liquid.. Vigorous boiling can break the bean skins and cook them unevenly, while low liquid lets beans scorch or stay firm. Beans should be nearly tender before baking, since they finish softening in the oven.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pork, ginger, sugar, tomato, ketchup):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Celeryfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, ginger, sugar, tomato, ketchup. 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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