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Cream Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with cream, molasses, bacon, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,408 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cream Baked 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.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight.

  2. Drain the beans.

  3. Cover the beans with boiling water.

  4. Cook the beans until tender.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the beans to a bean pot or stone jar.

  2. Add the cream, salt, and molasses to the beans.

  3. Bake the beans in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until thoroughly baked.

  4. Remove the cover before they are done to brown the 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. Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + beanstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. 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

Dry beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender through soaking and cooking.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the baked beans.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Bacon
Contributes fat and savory flavor to the beans as they bake.

The step that matters

Remove the cover before they are done. Uncovering the beans near the end lets surface moisture evaporate and the sugars in the molasses caramelize, browning the top. Removing it too early can dry the beans out, while leaving it on too long prevents browning.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, molasses):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Nutsfits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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