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Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with parboiled pork, molasses, cayenne pepper, mustard flour, and baking soda.

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 ↓

Baked Beans

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans in cold water until they boil.

  2. Add baking soda.

  3. Pour off the water.

  4. Add fresh boiling water.

  5. Boil until the beans are soft but not breaking.

Bake

  1. In a baking dish, combine molasses, cayenne pepper, and mustard flour.

  2. Stir in the beans.

  3. Place the parboiled pork in the center.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours.

  5. If the beans become too dry, add a little water.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  5. Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beans
Provide the bulk of the dish, becoming tender and starchy as they cook slowly.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's pH, helping the beans soften.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor during the long bake.
Parboiled pork
Contributes fat and savory flavor that seeps into the beans as they bake.

The step that matters

Keep the beans from drying out during the long bake. Over 3 to 4 hours in the oven, moisture evaporates and the beans can dry and scorch. Adding a little water when they look dry keeps them tender and saucy.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Lentilsfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, pepper, mustard, flour, pork. 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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