Name: Baked Beans
Ingredients: canned beans; molasses; 3-4 ounces best salt pork

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 hot oven

Ingredients

canned beans
molasses
3-4 ounces best salt pork

Directions

Prepare

Soak the canned beans in water.
Mix in molasses and diced salt pork.

Seal and cook

Seal the mixture in a tin can.
Heat the sealed can in a steam retort at 250°F-260°F (121°C-127°C).

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.

Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together491 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + porktop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together825 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Canned beans: Provide the bulk and starch that give the dish its body and soft texture.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the beans.