Name: Roast Pork
Ingredients: 2 lb pork; 2 lb 8 oz potatoes; 1 lb carrots; 1 lb cabbage; 2 lb apples; 2 oz milk; 3 oz butter; 6 oz bread

Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Roast Pork

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Roast the pork

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Season the pork and roast it in the oven until fully cooked.

Prepare the sides

Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.
Steam or boil the carrots until soft.
Prepare a salad with the cabbage.

Bake the apple pie

Make a pie crust and fill it with sliced apples, then bake until golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Carrot + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,505 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: Provides the main protein, which firms and sets as it cooks through.
Potatoes: Starch that softens when boiled and mashes into a smooth, bulky texture.
Apples: Fruit filling that softens and turns sweet and tangy as it bakes.
Bread: Forms the base of the pie crust, giving structure to hold the filling.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and flavor, and helps the crust brown.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the mash and enriches its flavor.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, carrot, apple, milk, butter, bread):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, carrot, apple, milk, butter, bread. 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.