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Fried Pork Chops

Fried pork chops served with a milk gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fried Pork Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the chops

  1. Fry the pork chops like mutton chops.

  2. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sage or summer savory, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Make the gravy

  1. For gravy, skim off some fat from the pan.

  2. Stir in 2 teaspoons of flour until free from lumps.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Add 2 cups of sweet milk, bring to a boil, and serve in a gravy boat.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
The main meat, cooked in its own fat until browned and tender.
Flour
Thickens the pan fat and drippings into a smooth gravy.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the gravy, adding body and richness once boiled.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour until free from lumps. Flour must be stirred into the hot fat so its starch coats each grain evenly before liquid is added. Otherwise it clumps and stays floury instead of forming a smooth thickened gravy.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour, milk):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Jalapenofits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour, milk. 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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