Why it works: Beans and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
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 the beans
Wash and pick over the beans, then soak them overnight.
Drain the beans in the morning, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil.
Parboil the beans for 30 minutes.
Test the beans by taking a spoonful and blowing on it; if the skins curl back, they are done.
Drain the beans in a colander and place a layer in a 2‑quart earthen bean pot.
Bake
Add the washed and gashed salt pork on top of the beans.
Dissolve the salt, mustard, and molasses in 1 cup of hot water and pour over the beans.
Fill the pot with hot water, cover, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 6 to 8 hours, renewing the water as it evaporates until the beans are nearly done.
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.
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Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + molassestop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together468 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together491 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
- Navy beans
- Form the bulk of the dish and soften slowly into a tender, creamy texture during long baking.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that melts into the beans and moistens them as they bake.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a dark color while contributing to the rich, deep flavor of the beans.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, pungent note that balances the sweetness of the molasses and the richness of the pork.
The step that matters
Testing the beans after parboiling. Beans that are undercooked at this point will not soften fully during the long bake, while overcooking leaves them mushy. The spoon test checks whether the skins have loosened enough to curl back, signaling that the starches have partly gelatinized and the beans are ready for baking.
“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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