Name: Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients: 3 pints of dried beans; ½ pound of salt pork; 1 tablespoon of dry mustard; ½ cup of molasses

Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients

3 pints of dried beans
½ pound of salt pork
1 tablespoon of dry mustard
½ cup of molasses

Directions

Soak the beans in cold water overnight.
Parboil the beans in fresh water until they begin to soften.
Drain the beans and place them in a bean pot.
Add ½ pound of salt pork at the bottom and another ½ pound on top of the beans, rind side up.
Mix the dry mustard with the molasses and pour it over the beans.
Fill the pot with water to cover the beans.

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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + molassestop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together468 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together491 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).