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Pork and Beans

A hearty stew of soaked pea beans, salt pork, molasses, and sea salt, baked slowly.

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 ↓

Pork and Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and parboil

  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.

Assemble and bake

  1. Gash the pork and place it in the pot.

  2. Cover the pot with the remaining beans.

  3. Add the molasses and salt.

  4. Cover with boiling water.

  5. Bake for 10 hours.

  6. Check regularly to ensure they do not cook dry.

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 turn tender and creamy as they cook slowly.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seeps into the beans during cooking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color while contributing to the dish's characteristic flavor.

The step that matters

Keeping the beans covered with liquid during the long bake. Beans absorb liquid as they cook, and if they are exposed to air they can dry out, scorch, and toughen. Checking regularly and keeping them submerged helps them cook evenly and stay moist over the long bake.

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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