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Boston Baked Beans

Boston baked beans are beans simmered with molasses, pork, salt, pepper, and water, 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 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 ↓

Boston 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.

Prepare the beans

  1. Cover the beans with boiling water and let them stand for 1-2 hours.

  2. Drain the beans.

  3. Put the beans in fresh water and boil for 20 minutes.

  4. Pour off the liquid and place the beans in a bean pot.

Bake

  1. Cover the beans with water, add molasses, pork, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bake the beans in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 8 to 10 hours.

  3. Keep the beans closely covered while baking.

  4. Add water occasionally to prevent the beans from becoming 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 + 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. Molasses + peppertop 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

Beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender and creamy during the long, slow bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a dark color, and deepens the flavor during baking.
Pork
Contributes savory flavor and fat that enriches the beans as they cook.

The step that matters

Keep the beans covered and add water during the long bake. Over 8 to 10 hours, water evaporates and the beans can dry out and toughen. Keeping the pot closely covered slows evaporation, and adding water as needed keeps the beans moist and tender.

“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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