Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 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 the beans
Wash the beans and soak them in cold water.
Bring the soaked beans to a boil.
Add baking soda and boil until the skins start to split.
Drain the beans and rinse them in cold water.
Assemble the pot
Prepare a bean pot by placing salt pork, sliced onion, salt, and pepper at the bottom.
Add the beans to the pot.
In a separate bowl, mix mustard, Karo syrup (or brown sugar), and boiling water.
Pour the mustard mixture over the beans.
Add more salt pork cut into squares on top.
Bake and serve
Cover the pot and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven all day, keeping it covered with boiling water until the last hour.
Remove the cover and let the beans brown before serving.
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.
-
Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,242 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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
- Dried beans
- Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and creamy during the long slow bake.
- Baking soda
- Raises the cooking water's pH, helping bean skins split and the beans soften.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that permeates the beans during baking.
- Karo syrup or brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the beans brown and thicken the sauce as they bake.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the sweetness of the sauce.
The step that matters
Keeping the beans covered with boiling water. Beans absorb liquid as they bake, and if the level drops they can dry out and scorch. Adding boiling water keeps the beans moist so they cook evenly over the long bake.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pork, pepper, mustard, syrup):
- Lettucefits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, pepper, mustard, syrup. 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.
More baked beans recipes
You might also like
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipes
German Style String Beans7 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.