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Stewed Beans

A simple stew of beans, pork, onion, and seasonings simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Stew

  1. In a pot, combine the parboiled beans, water, pork, and onion.

  2. Stew slowly for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the pork and onion before serving, if desired.

  2. Just before serving, add a small amount of baking soda and salt to taste.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

Beans
Form the main body of the dish, softening during the long slow stew.
Pork
Adds savory, meaty flavor to the cooking liquid as it stews.
Baking soda
Added near the end, it raises the pot's alkalinity, which helps beans soften further.

The step that matters

Stirring during the long stew. Beans and pork settle on the bottom of the pot over two hours and can scorch. Occasional stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the pot from burning.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Soybeanfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion. 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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