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Baked Beans

A slow‑cooked bean dish with salt pork, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the beans for 12 to 24 hours, then parboil them in water with baking soda.

  2. Drain and rinse the beans, then place them in a deep earthen bean pot.

  3. Bury the salt pork in the beans.

Make the sauce and bake

  1. Mix dry mustard, salt, and molasses (or brown sugar) with enough water to cover the beans.

  2. Pour the mixture over the beans, ensuring the pot is not too full, and cover it.

  3. As the water cooks away, add more water as needed.

  4. Bake the beans slowly for 10 to 12 hours at 400°F (200°C).

  5. At the end of cooking, bring the pork to the top and leave the pot uncovered to brown the surface.

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 + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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 + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,445 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + molassestop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Dried beans
Provide the starchy, protein-rich body that becomes tender and creamy during slow cooking.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that seeps into the beans and crisps on the surface.
Molasses or brown sugar
Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the sauce darken during long baking.
Baking soda
Raises the cooking water's alkalinity, helping the beans soften during parboiling.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot not too full and topping up water. Beans need to stay submerged as water cooks away; if they dry out, they can toughen and scorch. Leaving the pot uncovered at the end lets the surface brown.

“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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