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Baked Beans

Beans cooked with molasses, baking soda, and pork, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Baked Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight in soft water.

  2. In the morning, boil the beans until slightly soft, then rinse them in three changes of water.

Season and assemble

  1. Add molasses and baking soda to the beans.

  2. Scrape the rind of the pork and cut it ½ inch apart.

  3. Place the fat part of the pork in the beans and cover with water.

  4. If the pork is not salty enough, add a little salt.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for six hours, adding water if necessary to prevent drying out.

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. Molasses + porktop 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

Beans
Provide the bulk and starchy body that becomes tender during long cooking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, rich flavor to the beans.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking liquid's pH, helping the beans soften and the sauce darken.
Pork
Adds savory flavor, and its fat enriches the sauce as it renders during baking.

The step that matters

Adding water during the long bake. Over six hours in a hot oven the liquid evaporates and the beans can dry out and scorch. Topping up water keeps the beans moist and the sauce smooth.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, 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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