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 says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the beans
Soak the beans in cold water overnight.
Drain the beans in the morning.
Simmer the beans in fresh cold water until soft enough to pierce with a pin.
Drain the beans in a colander and rinse with cold water.
Prepare the pork
Place the beans in a bean pot with the onion if using.
Pour boiling water over the pork.
Scrape the rind of the pork until white.
Cut the pork into half-inch strips.
Bake and serve
Bury the pork in the beans, leaving the rind exposed.
Mix the salt and mustard with the molasses.
Fill a cup with hot water and pour the hot water mixture over the beans.
Add enough more water to cover the beans.
Keep the beans covered with water until the last hour.
Lift the pork to the surface to crisp.
Bake for 8 hours at 350°F (175°C).
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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Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,242 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Pea beans
- Provide the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and creamy during the long simmer and bake.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor to the beans, and its rind crisps on the surface.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and dark color, and helps form the sauce around the beans.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp note that balances the sweetness of the molasses.
The step that matters
Keep the beans covered with water until the last hour. Beans exposed to air dry out and can toughen or scorch, so the liquid must stay above them during the long bake until the final hour, when the surface is allowed to dry and crisp.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pork, mustard, molasses):
- Lettucefits better
- Welsh onionfits better
- Broccolifits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pork, mustard, molasses. 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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