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Pork and Beans

Beans cooked with salt pork, molasses, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in water.

  2. Wash and drain the beans, then boil them in cold water with baking soda for about 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the beans and place them in an earthen pot with a slice of pork and the molasses.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the salt pork on top, scored in slices or squares, and season with pepper and salt if needed.

  2. Cover the beans and pork with hot water and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for six hours or longer, adding hot water as needed.

  3. Keep covered to prevent burning, but remove the cover an hour or two before serving to brown the top and crisp the pork.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beans
Provide the bulk and creamy, starchy body of the finished dish.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's alkalinity, helping the beans soften during the initial boil.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavour that renders into the beans and crisps on top.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, colour and depth as it caramelises during the long bake.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot covered, then uncovering it near the end. Covering traps moisture so the beans do not dry out or scorch over six hours of baking. Uncovering the pot late lets surface moisture evaporate, so the top browns and the pork crisps.

“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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