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Mexican Beans

A simple bean dish cooked with onion, salt pork or bacon, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mexican Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash the beans well.

  2. Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water.

  3. In the morning, drain the water and add fresh cold water.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the beans on the stove for six to eight hours.

  2. Add the whole onion, slice of salt pork or bacon, and the pepper during cooking.

  3. Add salt to taste before serving.

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

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

  2. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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, becoming tender and creamy as they cook slowly in water.
Salt pork or bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the long simmer into the cooking liquid.
Whole onion
Releases sweet, aromatic flavor into the cooking liquid during the long simmer.
Green or red pepper
Contributes fresh, vegetal aroma and mild sweetness to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Soaking and cooking the beans slowly. Beans need enough time in water to soften fully. Adding salt only at the end lets the beans absorb water and cook evenly, rather than toughening their skins early in the cooking process.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Sesamefits about as well
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Soybeanfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pork, 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.

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