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 hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Make plain pastry and set aside.
Slice pork into thin pieces, about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide.
Assemble
Layer pork slices in a pie dish.
Sprinkle chopped parsley, onion, pepper, and salt over the pork.
Add another layer of pork and repeat seasoning, using nutmeg sparingly.
Continue layering until the dish is full.
Pour in stock or water and add ketchup.
Place pastry around the edge of the dish and cover with a lid.
Bake
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until pastry rises and colors.
Move pie to bottom of oven, cover with paper, and 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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Onion + parsleytop 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).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 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
- Forms the bulk of the filling, cooking through in the long, covered bake.
- Plain pastry
- Encloses the filling and browns and sets into the crust during baking.
- Stock or water
- Adds moisture that turns to steam and keeps the meat juicy as it cooks.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity, contributing to the savoury-sweet flavour of the filling.
- Onion
- Adds aroma and savoury depth as it softens and flavours the pork.
The step that matters
Covering and baking low at the bottom of the oven. Pork loin is lean and dries out easily. Moving the pie to the bottom of the oven and covering it with paper shields the crust from over-browning while the filling cooks slowly through, and the added stock keeps the meat moist.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, parsley, pepper, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, pepper, 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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