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Pork and Beans

A hearty stew of soaked beans cooked with salt pork, molasses, and pepper.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and boil

  1. Pick over the beans and soak them overnight.

  2. In the morning, wash and drain the beans.

  3. Place the beans in a kettle with cold water and baking soda.

  4. Boil the beans for about 20 minutes.

Season and assemble

  1. Drain the beans and transfer them to an earthen bean dish.

  2. Add molasses to the beans and season with pepper.

  3. Place the salt pork in the center of the beans, rind side up, scored in slices or squares.

  4. Cover the beans with hot water.

Bake and brown

  1. Bake the covered beans for 6 hours at 350°F (175°C), keeping covered to prevent burning.

  2. An hour before serving, remove the pork to brown it separately.

  3. Allow the beans to brown on top.

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. Pepper + porktop 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
Form the bulk of the dish and turn tender and creamy during long cooking.
Baking soda
Raises the alkalinity of the cooking water, helping the bean skins soften.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, rich flavor to the beans.
Salt pork
Renders fat and seasoning into the beans while its scored rind crisps when browned.

The step that matters

Browning the pork separately. The pork sits under a covered dish for hours, so its rind stays soft and pale. Removing it an hour before serving and browning it lets the fat render and the rind crisp, while the beans brown on top.

“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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