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Baked Beans

Beans baked with water, optional pork fat, cream or butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Baked Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak 1½ cups of dried beans overnight.

  2. Drain the beans and cover them with fresh water.

  3. If using, add a piece of fat pork to the beans.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the beans for 3 to 6 hours, ensuring there is enough liquid in the dish.

  2. Season with cream or butter if desired, and add salt to taste.

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. Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Beans + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Provide the main body and starch that give the baked beans their bulk and creamy texture.
Fat pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries into the beans during long baking.
Cream or butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mouthfeel of the finished beans.

The step that matters

Keeping enough liquid in the dish during baking. Beans absorb water as they cook for hours, and if the liquid runs low they can dry out, scorch, or cook unevenly. Keeping them covered in liquid lets the starches soften gradually into a tender, creamy texture.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Peanutfits better
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, cream. 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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