Skip to main content
Main

Pork and Beans

A hearty stew of beans cooked with salt pork, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork and 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.

Soak and boil

  1. Soak the beans overnight in tepid water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

  2. In the morning, drain the beans and add 2 quarts of boiling water and ½ teaspoon of baking soda.

  3. Boil the beans for 2 hours until the skins crack.

  4. Drain the beans and place them in a bean pot or large dish.

Bake

  1. Score the salt pork in small squares and place it in the center of the beans.

  2. Add boiling water until it reaches the level of the pork rind.

  3. Stir 2 tablespoons of molasses into 1 quart of boiling water and pour it over the beans.

  4. Cover and bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 4 hours, adding more boiling water if necessary.

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 + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  2. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pork + molassestop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together825 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 and become tender and creamy during long cooking.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's alkalinity, which helps the bean skins soften during soaking and boiling.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans and enriches their texture as it renders.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep caramel-like flavor during slow baking.

The step that matters

Slow bake covered with enough liquid. Beans can dry out or scorch if the liquid drops too low during the long bake. Keeping the pork rind covered and adding boiling water as needed lets the beans cook gently and absorb flavor evenly.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits less well
  4. Nutsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, 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.

More pork and beans recipes

Baked 27Boston 10Boston baked 3Corned 3 See all 78 →

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesMolasses SauceMolasses Sauce32 recipesGerman Style String BeansGerman Style String Beans7 recipes