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Canned Beans

A preserved bean dish made by boiling beans with water, vinegar, sugar, and bacon, then canning the mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Canned Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. Combine beans, water, cider vinegar, and sugar in a large pot.

  2. Boil for at least 30 minutes.

Can

  1. Can the mixture using your preferred method.

Cook to serve

  1. When ready to use, soak beans for a few minutes.

  2. Boil soaked beans with a piece of bacon for 2.5 hours.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Beans + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Beans + cidertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

String beans
Make up the bulk of the dish and soften into tender pieces during the long simmer.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the beans their tangy flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Bacon
Releases fat and smoky, savory flavor into the beans as it simmers.

The step that matters

Boil soaked beans with bacon for 2.5 hours. A long, gentle simmer lets the bacon release its fat and flavor while the beans slowly soften. Boiling too hard can break the beans apart and make them mushy.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Kidney beansfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, 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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