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Boston Baked Beans

A hearty bean dish simmered with salt pork, mustard, molasses, and baking soda, baked for hours.

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

Boston Baked 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 pea beans in cold water overnight.

  2. Drain the beans and place them in fresh cold water with baking soda.

  3. Simmer until tender without boiling.

  4. Drain the beans in a colander.

  5. Rinse the beans with cold water.

Prepare the pork and sauce

  1. Transfer the beans to a bean pot.

  2. Pour boiling water over the salt pork.

  3. Scrape the rind of the pork.

  4. Score the rind in half-inch strips.

  5. Bury the pork in the beans, leaving the rind exposed.

  6. Mix salt, mustard, and molasses with hot water.

  7. Pour the mixture over the beans.

  8. Add enough water to cover the beans.

Bake

  1. Keep the pot covered with water until the last hour.

  2. Uncover the pot to let the top brown.

  3. Bake for 8 hours at 350°F (175°C) in an earthen bean pot.

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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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 + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,445 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + molassestop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Pea beans
Provide the bulk and starchy body that becomes tender during long simmering and baking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften more quickly.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as it renders during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the sauce brown on the surface.
Mustard
Contributes a sharp, pungent note that balances the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender without boiling. A gentle simmer softens the beans evenly while keeping their skins intact. A hard boil breaks the skins and turns the beans mushy.

“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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