Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Pork Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Make a good plain pastry.
Cut the pork into very thin slices, 3 inches long and 2 inches wide.
Layer and season
Layer the pork slices in a pie dish.
Sprinkle some parsley, onion, pepper, and salt over the pork.
Add another layer of pork and repeat the seasoning, using nutmeg sparingly.
Continue layering until the dish is full.
Pour in the stock or water and add the ketchup.
Bake
Place a little pastry around the edge of the dish, cover it, and bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C).
When the pastry rises and begins to color, move the pie to the bottom of the oven, covering it with paper.
Bake for at least 2 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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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
- Pork loin
- Provides the meat that cooks down to tender, juicy layers, with little fat.
- Onion
- Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks within the pie.
- Ketchup
- Adds acidity and sweetness to the filling's flavor.
- Plain pastry
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Moving the pie to the bottom of the oven once the crust colors. Covering the crust with paper and shifting the pie lower keeps the top from burning while the thick pork filling cooks through, since dense meat needs prolonged, gentle heat to become tender.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, ketchup. 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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