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Chicago Baked Beans

A baked bean dish from Chicago featuring navy beans, salt pork, and seasonings, baked slowly until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Chicago Baked Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and parboil

  1. Soak the navy beans in water overnight for 12 hours.

  2. In the morning, boil the beans with enough water to cover them and 1 tablespoon of baking soda until the skins curl when you breathe on a spoonful.

  3. Strain the beans and place them in clear water, then boil slowly until tender but not falling apart.

Layer and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the beans, seasoning with coarse sea salt and a little granulated sugar between layers.

  2. Place the lean salt pork in the center and finish layering the beans and seasoning.

  3. Pour the reserved boiling liquid over the beans until fully covered, replenishing as needed to keep them moist.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 5 to 6 hours.

Serve

  1. If desired, mix in stewed and seasoned tomatoes just before serving.

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 + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,587 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + porktop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,579 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Navy beans
Provide the main body and starchy, creamy texture of the finished dish.
Baking soda
Raises the bean skin pH so the skins soften during boiling.
Lean salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor as it slowly renders into the beans.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the salt and rounds out the flavor.

The step that matters

Keep the beans covered with liquid during baking. Beans exposed to air dry out and toughen on the surface during the long slow bake. Replenishing the reserved liquid keeps them moist and tender.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Sesamefits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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