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Cream Baked Beans

A baked bean dish with cream, bacon, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Baked Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and cook the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight.

  2. Drain the beans.

  3. Cover the beans with boiling water.

  4. Cook until tender.

Add the flavourings

  1. Transfer the beans to a bean pot or stone jar.

  2. Add the cream to the beans.

  3. Add the salt to the beans.

  4. Add the sugar to the beans.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until thoroughly baked.

  6. Remove the cover to brown them.

  7. Wash the beans in hot water.

  8. Drain the beans.

  9. Place the beans in a kettle with the bacon. Cover with boiling water. Boil for half an hour.

  10. Add the baking soda. Stir well. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

  11. Skim the mixture into a bean pot.

  12. Season with salt and pepper.

  13. Add the molasses.

  14. Score the rind of the bacon. Place the bacon on top of the beans.

  15. Add boiling water until it reaches the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake steadily for 6 hours. Add hot water as needed.

  2. After 6 hours, remove the cover. Bake until the beans are as dry as desired.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Dry beans
Form the bulk of the dish and become tender and creamy as they cook.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the beans as they bake.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, depth and a darker colour to the baked beans.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the beans.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's alkalinity, helping the beans soften during boiling.

The step that matters

Bake steadily for 6 hours, adding hot water as needed. Long, gentle baking lets the starches in the beans gelatinise and the sugars caramelise slowly. If the beans dry out or the oven runs too hot, they can scorch or stay tough, so the liquid level must be kept up.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, molasses, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Beansthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, molasses, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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