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Boston Baked Beans

Boston baked beans are beans simmered with molasses, salt, pepper, and optional pickled pork or butter.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Pick over and wash the beans, then soak them overnight.

  2. In the morning, parboil the beans.

Assemble

  1. Place the beans in a bean pot or small-necked earthen jar.

  2. Cover the beans with cold water.

  3. Add molasses, salt, and pepper to taste.

  4. If using, parboil the pickled pork. If using, score the pickled pork. If using, place the pork in the center of the dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 12 hours, adding water as needed.

  2. If desired, omit the pork and use a little butter to season the beans.

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 + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender and creamy during the long bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and dark color, and deepens the flavor as the beans bake slowly.
Pickled pork
Adds savory, salty flavor and richness to the beans as it cooks.

The step that matters

Adding water as needed during the long bake. Beans absorb liquid and can dry out over many hours in the oven. Keeping them covered with liquid lets the starches soften evenly and prevents scorching on the bottom.

“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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