Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. 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 and pick over the beans, then cover with cold water and soak overnight.
In the morning, cover the beans with fresh water, heat slowly, and cook just below boiling until the skins burst.
Drain the beans and place them in a pot with the brisket of beef.
Add the seasoning and bake
If using pork, scald it, cut the rind into half‑inch strips, and bury it in the beans, leaving the rind exposed.
Mix mustard, salt, sugar, molasses, and boiling water, then pour over the beans, adding enough water to cover them.
Cover the pot and bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for six to eight hours.
Uncover the pot during the last hour to allow the pork to brown and crisp.
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.
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Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Mustard + beanstop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + beanstop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + beanstop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 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
- Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and creamy during the long slow cooking.
- Fat salt pork
- Adds richness and fat, and its rind crisps and browns when uncovered at the end.
- Brisket of beef
- Contributes savory meaty flavor to the beans as it cooks slowly with them.
- Molasses
- Adds dark sweetness, color, and a deep caramel-like flavor to the sauce.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the savory pork and beef flavors.
The step that matters
Cooking the beans just below boiling. Holding the beans at a gentle simmer until the skins burst lets them soften evenly. A hard boil can split and break the beans, leaving them mushy and uneven.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, beef, sugar, beans):
- Potatofits better
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, beef, sugar, beans. 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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