Name: Pork Pot-pie
Ingredients: 1 fresh spare rib or pieces of lean salt pork; 1-2 slices of fat salt pork; Cold water (enough to cover the meat); Pepper to taste; 6 potatoes, quartered; Dumplings (from Veal Pot-Pie recipe)

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 ↓

Pork Pot-pie

Ingredients

1 fresh spare rib or pieces of lean salt pork
1-2 slices of fat salt pork
Cold water (enough to cover the meat)
Pepper to taste
6 potatoes, quartered
Dumplings (from Veal Pot-Pie recipe)

Directions

Prepare the pork

Scald the pork with hot water to remove the briny taste.
Place the pork in a kettle and cover it with cold water.

Cook

Cover and boil for 1 hour, seasoning with pepper.
Add the quartered potatoes and bring to a boil again.
Drop in the dumplings and cook until done.

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).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,930 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,208 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork: Provides the meat and fat that flavour the broth.
Potatoes: Absorb the seasoned broth and thicken the pot as they cook soft.
Dumplings: Cook in the simmering broth, becoming soft and absorbing flavour.