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Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with salt pork, salt, and optional molasses, cooked in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans in water overnight.

  2. If desired, drain the water and add fresh water; otherwise, leave the soaking water.

Bake

  1. Place the pot in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour.

  2. Remove any excess water from the pot.

  3. Place the salt pork on top of the beans and add salt.

  4. Return the pot to the oven and cook for 24 hours, adding molasses for sweetness if desired.

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

Beans
Form the body of the dish, becoming soft and creamy during the long slow cook.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that slowly seasons the beans as it renders.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deepens the color of the beans as they bake.

The step that matters

Keep the long bake gentle and the liquid right. A 24-hour bake relies on slow heat to soften the beans and break down their starches. Removing excess water keeps the beans from becoming watery, while enough liquid must remain so they do not dry out and scorch.

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.

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