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Baked Beans

A slow-cooked bean dish with pork, butter, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans overnight.

  2. Parboil the beans with baking soda until the skins can be blown off.

Prepare the pork

  1. Boil the pork for a few moments, then add salt and butter.

  2. Place the pork in the center of a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cooking liquid over the pork, adding enough water to cover.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 4 to 5 hours, keeping the dish covered initially.

  3. Allow the top to brown slightly before serving.

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

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

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beans
Form the body of the dish, becoming tender and creamy during long slow baking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the bean skins soften so they can be removed.
Fresh or salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seasons the beans as they bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the pork and cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Parboiling the beans with baking soda. Baking soda raises the pH of the cooking water, which softens the bean skins so they can be blown off. Too much soda can make beans mushy and give them a soapy taste, so the amount must be measured carefully.

Swap the beans

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter. 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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