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Pork Smotherjid in Apples

Pork chops smothered in thickened meat stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,208 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Pork Smotherjid in Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim all the fat off the pork chops and place them in a braising dish.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, thicken the meat stock with the browned flour and butter.

  2. Pour the thickened stock over the pork chops.

Braise

  1. Cover the dish and cook for 1½ hours.

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. Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Meat stock
Adds liquid and savory flavor that gently cooks the pork in the braising dish.
Browned flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that rounds out the thickened sauce.

The step that matters

Cover the dish and cook for 1½ hours. Covered, low-moisture braising keeps the pork from drying out while collagen and connective tissue slowly soften. Lifting the lid lets liquid evaporate and can leave the meat tough and the sauce too thick.

“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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