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Boston Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with dried beans, molasses, pickled pork, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boston 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.

Prepare the beans

  1. Cover the beans with water and bring the covered beans to a boil.

  2. Drain the water.

  3. Cover the beans again with water and add a pinch of baking soda.

  4. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours, or until you can easily crush a bean between your fingers.

Season and bake

  1. Place the beans in a bean pot.

  2. Season the beans with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the molasses and sugar if desired.

  4. Add the pickled pork.

  5. Bake the beans in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 6 hours.

  6. Keep the beans covered with water until the last 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. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  2. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  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

Dried beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and creamy during long cooking.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, deep color and a rich flavor as it caramelizes slowly in the oven.
Pickled pork
Contributes salty, savory fat that flavors the beans throughout the long bake.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's alkalinity, helping beans soften more quickly during simmering.

The step that matters

Keep the beans covered with water until the last hour. Beans baked in a dry pot can dry out, toughen and scorch on top. Keeping them submerged keeps them moist while the starches gelatinize and the sauce thickens.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, molasses, 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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