Name: Stewed Beans with Corned Shoulder of Pork
Ingredients: ⅔ cup small white beans; ½ pound corned shoulder of pork; 1 small slice of onion; a pinch of pepper; water

Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Beans with Corned Shoulder of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the beans overnight.
Place the corned shoulder in an earthen dish.

Stew

Add the soaked beans, onion slice, and pepper.
Cover with water.
Cook for five hours.

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.

Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Small white beans: Form the body of the stew and soften into a creamy texture during long cooking.
Corned shoulder of pork: Provides savory, salty flavor and rich fat that seasons the beans as they cook.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Cook for five hours. Beans need a long, gentle simmer to soften fully and absorb flavor. Keeping the liquid covered with water and cooking slowly prevents the beans from drying out or splitting while the pork tenderizes.

Swap the beans

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

Sesamefits about as well
Black-eyed peafits about as well
Beansthe original
Soybeanfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, pepper. 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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Stewed Beans with Corned Shoulder of Pork