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
Prepare
Soak the beans overnight.
Place the soaked beans in a deep dish with a little water.
Put the salt pork in the center of the dish.
Bake
Bake for 3 to 4 hours.
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.
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dried beans
- Form the main body of the dish and soften into a tender, starchy texture during baking.
- Salt pork
- Adds salt and fat, which melt slowly into the beans and season them as they bake.
The step that matters
Bake for 3 to 4 hours. Dried beans need long, moist heat to soften their starch and break down their cell walls. Stopping early leaves them firm and unevenly cooked.
“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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