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Baked Beans

A slow-cooked bean dish with salt pork, salt, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Soak and cook

  1. Examine and wash the beans, then soak them in 6 quarts of cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, wash the beans again and place them in a pot with 6 quarts of cold water and the salt pork.

  3. Cook the beans for 30 minutes if they are fresh, or 1 hour if they are older.

  4. Drain the beans and place half in a bean pot.

Bake

  1. Score the pork and place it on top of the beans, then add the remaining beans, salt, and molasses.

  2. Cover with boiling water and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 10 hours, adding boiling water as needed.

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

Dry pea beans
Form the bulk of the dish and soften into a tender, creamy texture during soaking and baking.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that slowly seasons the beans during the long bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color to the sauce as it bakes.

The step that matters

Long, low bake with added boiling water. Beans need a slow, gentle cook to become tender and absorb the sauce without drying out. Keeping them covered with boiling water as needed maintains moisture, and the low oven temperature prevents the skins from splitting and the sauce from scorching.

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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