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Boston Baked Beans

A slow‑cooked bean dish with pork, molasses, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boston 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

  1. Soak the beans overnight.

  2. In the morning, rinse the beans in two or three waters.

  3. Place the beans in a baking pan without parboiling.

Season and bake

  1. Add the mixed pork in the middle of the bean pot.

  2. Sweeten with molasses or sugar, and add baking soda, salt, and pepper.

  3. Fill the pan with boiling water, cover, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 8 to 9 hours.

  4. Add water as it evaporates.

  5. Remove the cover for the last hour or two to allow the beans to brown.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dried beans
Provide the bulk of the dish and, once slowly cooked, a creamy, tender texture.
Mixed pork
Adds savory fat and meaty flavour that seasons the beans as they bake.
Molasses or sugar
Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the surface brown during the final uncovered baking.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's alkalinity, which helps the beans soften during the long bake.

The step that matters

Remove the cover for the last hour or two. Uncovering lets surface water evaporate and sugars caramelize, which browns the top. Covered too long, the beans stay pale and soupy.

“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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