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Pork and Beans

A slow-cooked pork and beans dish baked in an earthen pot with molasses and salt pork.

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 ↓

Pork and Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Pick over the beans and soak them overnight.

  2. In the morning, wash and drain the beans, then boil them in cold water with baking soda for about 30 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Drain the beans and place a slice of pork in an earthen pot, followed by the beans and molasses.

  2. Add the salt pork on top, season with pepper and coarse sea salt if needed.

  3. Cover with hot water and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for six hours or longer, adding hot water as needed.

  4. Keep covered to prevent burning, but remove the cover an hour or two before serving to brown the top and crisp the pork.

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

Beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender during the long, slow baking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften during boiling.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as it renders.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color while darkening the sauce during baking.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot covered, then uncovering near the end. Covered baking traps moisture so the beans stay soft and do not scorch, while uncovering at the end lets surface water evaporate so the top browns and the pork crisps.

“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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