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 ↓
Dry Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Parboil the beans, then drain them.
Cover the beans with boiling water.
Add the piece of gashed pickled pork.
Cook until tender, leaving very little water when done.
Add salt if necessary.
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.
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Beans
- Provide the main body and starch, which soften gradually during long simmering.
- Pickled pork
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat to the cooking liquid as it simmers.
The step that matters
Cook until tender, leaving very little water when done. Dried beans need sustained, gentle simmering for their starches to soften fully. Cooking them down to very little liquid leaves less margin, so the beans can scorch or dry out if the heat or water level is not watched.
“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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