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Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with molasses, salt pork, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Parboil the beans until they begin to burst open, then drain them into a deep dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the molasses and place the salt pork in the center of the dish, covering it with the beans.

  2. If the pork is fresh, add salt to taste.

  3. Fill the dish with the water from the beans and keep it filled until almost done.

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

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 + coffeetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pork + coffeetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together220 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Molasses + coffeetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together640 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry beans
Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and creamy as they cook slowly.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich flavor during the long bake.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seeps into the beans as they cook.

The step that matters

Keep the dish filled with bean water. Beans that dry out during the long bake can scorch and toughen. Keeping them submerged in liquid helps them cook evenly and stay moist until they are nearly done.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, pork, coffee. 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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