Skip to main content
Main

Warmed-over Baked Beans

Layered baked beans with tomatoes and onions, seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Warmed-over Baked Beans

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Layer

  1. In a baking dish, layer baked beans, followed by a layer of tomatoes, then a layer of thinly sliced onions.

  2. Add butter, coarse sea salt, and black pepper to each layer.

  3. Repeat the layering process until all ingredients are used.

  4. Ensure there is enough juice from the tomatoes to moisten the layers.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Serve in individual dishes for best presentation.

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 + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 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

Baked beans
Form the bulk of the dish and provide a soft, hearty base for the layers.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that keep the layers juicy as they cook.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and caramelise in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping flavour carry through the layers and encouraging light browning.

The step that matters

Ensure enough tomato juice to moisten the layers. Beans and onions can dry out and scorch in the oven if there is not enough liquid. Tomato juice provides moisture that steams the layers and helps them cook evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, tomato, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, butter, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes