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Baked Beans with Pork

A baked bean dish cooked with salt pork, molasses or sugar, and seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Baked Beans with Pork

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash and soak the beans overnight.

  2. In the morning, boil the beans in 2 quarts of cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and add hot water to cover the beans.

  4. Boil for another 30 minutes, then drain again.

  5. Add enough hot water to cover the beans well.

Cook the pork and beans

  1. Add the washed salt pork to the pot and boil slowly until both are cooked, adding water as needed.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking pan, season with pepper and salt, and add molasses or sugar if desired.

  2. Place the pork in the center of the dish, skin side up, and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Pork + peppertop 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. Pepper + molassestop 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

Dry beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and creamy when simmered and baked.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans and browns on the surface.
Molasses or sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the beans take on a deep, browned color in the oven.

The step that matters

Boil the beans in two rounds with fresh water. Changing the cooking water after the first boil removes compounds that cause gas and bitterness, and keeps the beans from tasting harsh. Skipping the drain-and-refill can leave the finished beans less pleasant to eat.

“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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