Skip to main content
Main

Baked Pork and Beans

A baked dish of beans and salt pork flavored with molasses and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Pork and Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak 1 quart of dry beans overnight.

  2. Boil the beans in cold water for about 30 minutes.

  3. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda.

  4. Boil briefly.

  5. Drain the water.

  6. Cover the beans with fresh water.

  7. Boil until tender but not mashed.

Prepare and bake

  1. Clean the salt pork.

  2. Score the rind of the salt pork.

  3. Place the salt pork in the center of the beans in a large baking dish.

  4. Add 2 tablespoons of molasses.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.

  6. Add enough water to cover the beans.

  7. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) all day.

  8. Keep the beans covered with hot 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 beans
Form the bulk of the dish; soften during long boiling and slow baking to become tender.
Baking soda (saleratus)
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften more quickly.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders slowly into the beans during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the beans brown during slow baking.

The step that matters

Keep the beans covered with hot water as needed. Beans baked for a long time can dry out and scorch at the surface. Keeping them submerged in hot water maintains moisture so they cook evenly and stay tender rather than drying into a crust.

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.

More baked pork and beans recipes

Boston 3 See all 27 →

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesMolasses SauceMolasses Sauce32 recipesGerman Style String BeansGerman Style String Beans7 recipes