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Navy Beans

A stew of navy beans with pickled pork, seasoned with salt, red pepper, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Navy Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the navy beans overnight in cold water.

  2. In the morning, place the beans in an iron pot and cover with cold water.

Cook

  1. Add a pinch of baking soda and bring to a boil for a few minutes.

  2. Drain the water and add more boiling water along with the pickled pork.

  3. Boil until the outer skin of the beans begins to break.

  4. Season with salt and red pepper to taste, then serve.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Navy beans
Provide the main bulk and starchy body of the dish as they soften.
Pickled pork
Adds savory fat and salty, meaty flavor that seasons the beans as they cook.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity, helping the bean skins soften and break down.

The step that matters

Boil until the outer skin of the beans begins to break. Stop too early and the beans stay firm and tough inside. Boil too long and they fall apart and turn mushy. The skins signal that the starch inside has softened enough to eat.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Soybeanfits about as well
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, 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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