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Boston Baked Beans

Baked beans with pork, mustard, salt, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash and soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water.

  2. In the morning, place the beans in a kettle and pour boiling water over them.

  3. Let the beans stand for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce and bake

  1. In a cup, mix the dry mustard, salt, and molasses.

  2. Fill the cup with boiling water and stir well.

  3. Place the beans in a pot with the pork in the center.

  4. Pour the mustard mixture over the beans.

  5. Fill the pot with boiling water, cover, and bake for 8 to 10 hours.

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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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 + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,445 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + molassestop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together491 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

Pea beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender during the long bake.
Fat pork
Adds fat and savory richness that flavors the beans as they cook.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color to the sauce as it bakes.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Cover and bake for 8 to 10 hours. Beans need a long, moist, low heat to soften fully and absorb the sauce. Keeping the pot covered and topped with boiling water prevents drying and scorching, so the starches gelatinize evenly.

“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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