Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 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
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Season the beef with coarse sea salt and pepper.
Place the beef in a baking dish and add enough water to cover the bottom.
Bake and serve
Cover the dish and bake for 3 to 4 hours, until the beef is tender.
Remove from the oven and let rest before slicing.
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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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 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
- Beef
- Provides the main protein, which softens into tender meat during slow, covered baking.
- Water
- Creates steam and moisture in the covered dish, helping keep the beef from drying out.
The step that matters
Cover the dish and bake until tender. Slow baking under cover breaks down the beef's connective tissue gently. Removing the cover too early or baking too briefly can leave the meat tough, so it should be checked for tenderness before serving.
“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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