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Bean Loaf

A baked loaf of bean pulp and rice topped with salt pork strips, served with a tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Bean Loaf

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.

Prepare the loaf

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Mix the bean pulp, rice, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  3. Mold the mixture in a pan and cover with salt pork strips.

  4. Bake for 1 hour.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. For the tomato sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Gradually add the strained tomatoes, salt, sugar, white pepper, and clove.

  4. Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the bean loaf with the tomato sauce.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  4. Rice + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Bean pulp
Forms the body of the loaf, providing bulk and a hearty, binding base.
Rice
Adds starch and body, helping the loaf hold its shape when baked.
Strained tomatoes
Supply the liquid and acidity that make up the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the butter mixture into a roux that gives the tomato sauce body.
Salt pork
Renders fat over the loaf, adding moisture and savory flavor as it bakes.

The step that matters

Gradually add the strained tomatoes. Adding liquid slowly to the flour and butter roux lets starch disperse evenly, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, well-thickened sauce.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, rice, pork, butter, flour, tomato, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, rice, pork, butter, flour, tomato, sugar. 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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