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New England Baked Beans

A slow-cooked bean dish with salt pork, molasses, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

New England Baked Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Pick over and wash the beans.

  2. Soak the beans overnight in cold water.

  3. Drain the beans.

  4. Add fresh water and boil until they begin to crack.

  5. Drain again.

Bake

  1. Place the beans in a baking pot with the salt pork, cutting the pork rind several times.

  2. Add salt and molasses.

  3. Cover with water.

  4. Bake slowly, preferably overnight, ensuring there is always enough 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 + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pork + molassestop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together825 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

White beans
Form the bulk of the dish and turn tender and creamy during slow baking.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that melts into the beans as they bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color through gradual browning during baking.

The step that matters

Keep the beans covered with water while baking. Beans that dry out during slow baking can scorch and toughen on the surface, while beans kept submerged cook evenly and become soft and creamy throughout.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits less well
  4. Nutsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, molasses. 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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