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Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with navy beans, sugar, salt, pepper, and sliced side meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

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. Boil the navy beans in 2 quarts of cold water.

  2. When hot, add the baking soda and boil for 1 hour.

  3. Drain and rinse the beans with hot water.

Season and bake

  1. Add the salt, pepper, and granulated sugar.

  2. Transfer to a baking pan and add enough boiling water to cover the beans.

  3. Slice the fresh side meat thinly and lay it on top of the beans.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 2 hours or more, turning the meat occasionally to brown it on both sides.

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 + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together369 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beans + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,587 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Navy beans
Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and creamy as they cook and bake.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften during the long boil.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the beans develop a rich, caramelized flavor in the oven.
Fresh side meat
Adds fat and savory flavor, and browns on its surface during baking.

The step that matters

Turning the meat while baking. Turning the side meat during the long bake lets both sides brown evenly. Without turning, one side can stay pale or burn while the beans below dry out.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, meat):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, meat. 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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