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 ↓
Boston 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
Soak the beans overnight in cold water.
Drain and wash the beans.
Boil the beans in cold water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda for about 15 minutes, then drain and wash again.
Boil the beans in boiling water until they can be pierced with a pin.
Drain the beans and place them in a baking dish.
Season and assemble
Mix the brown sugar, molasses, salt, mustard, and white pepper, then stir this mixture evenly through the beans.
Pour boiling water over the salt pork, scrape it, cut it into narrow strips, and lay it over the beans, pushing it down to a depth of 1 inch.
Sprinkle the cream over the beans and add enough boiling water to cover the mixture.
Bake
Cover the baking dish and bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for about 7 to 8 hours.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Beans + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,445 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 bulk and starchy body that becomes tender and creamy during slow cooking.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter flavor during the long bake.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the sauce darken and thicken as it cooks.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor that seeps down into the beans as they bake.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Boil the beans until tender before baking with the sweetened mixture. Sugar and molasses firm up bean skins and slow softening, so beans should be fully tender before the seasoning goes in. Otherwise they can stay tough even after hours in the oven.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, sugar, pork, molasses, cream, mustard):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, sugar, pork, molasses, cream, mustard. 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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