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Yorkshire Pressed Pork

A pressed pork loaf seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, sage, and garlic, baked slowly and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Yorkshire Pressed Pork

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the lean and fat pork coarsely and mix them together.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt, white pepper, thyme, parsley, sage, and garlic; mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Press the meat mixture into a dish and cover it tightly with brown paper.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours.

  3. Let it cool; it is generally eaten cold.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fat pork
Supplies fat that keeps the pressed meat moist and rich as it cooks and sets.
Lean pork
Provides the meaty structure that holds the pressed slices together.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out and bind its proteins for a firmer texture.

The step that matters

Covering and baking slowly. Pressing the mixture into a dish and covering it tightly with brown paper traps moisture, while a slow oven cooks the meat gently. Too much heat or a loose cover can dry the pork out.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, thyme, parsley, sage, garlic):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, thyme, parsley, sage, garlic. 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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