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Eastern Baked Beans with Tomatoes

A baked bean dish with tomatoes, salt pork, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Eastern Baked Beans with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and parboil

  1. Soak the beans in cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, cover the beans with fresh cold water and add the baking soda.

  3. Boil until the skins begin to crack, then drain thoroughly and cover with boiling water.

Add the pork and tomatoes

  1. Prepare the salt pork by scraping, washing, and cutting off the rind. Slash the top in strips and sink it into the beans.

  2. Add the cooked tomatoes and molasses. Adjust salt if needed.

Cook and finish in a jar

  1. Cook slowly until the beans begin to break their skins.

  2. Transfer to a jar with the meat showing on top. Sprinkle with a little sugar to help them brown and add pepper if desired.

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 + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 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. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  5. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 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 that becomes tender and creamy during slow cooking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the bean skins soften and the beans cook evenly.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as it renders during cooking.
Tomatoes
Add moisture, acidity, and body to the sauce around the beans.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, caramel-like flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil until the skins begin to crack, then drain. Stopping at the right point softens the beans without splitting them. Undercooked beans stay firm inside, while overcooking makes them break apart before the slow bake.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, molasses, sugar, pepper. 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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