Name: Cold Roast Pork
Ingredients: 1 lb cold roast pork; 1 lb potatoes; 12 oz bread; 1 lb canned peaches; 2 oz sugar; 2 oz butter; 8 oz milk

Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Cold Roast Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice the cold roast pork.
Bake the potatoes in their skins until tender.

Serve

Serve the bread alongside.
Drain the canned peaches and serve them.
Prepare a plain cake if desired.

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.

Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together781 recipes

Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast pork: Forms the main protein, providing savoury flavour and most of the substance of the dish.
Potatoes: Baking in their skins makes them tender and starchy, giving the dish bulk and a soft texture.
Bread: Adds starch alongside the meat and potatoes, making the meal more filling.
Canned peaches: Provide sweetness and juiciness that contrast with the savoury pork.

Swap the peach

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

Vanillafits better
Applefits about as well
Figfits about as well
Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, bread, sugar, butter, 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.