Name: Baked Beans
Ingredients: 1 quart beans; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon molasses; 1 pound salt pork; cold water

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Pick and wash the beans, then soak them overnight.
In the morning, strain the beans through a colander.

Bake

Sprinkle the beans with salt and molasses.
Score the salt pork and place it on top of the beans.
Fill the pot with cold water and bake.

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.

Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together491 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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: Form the bulk of the dish and, once baked, supply the body and starchy texture.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders into the beans during baking.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the beans brown during baking.