Skip to main content

Pork Tenderloin with Caramelized Apple and Creme Sauce

"Fresh thyme, dry white wine, and carmelized apple give this weeknight dinner gourmet flavour."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pork and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,577 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep10 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt the 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork pieces and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side until browned. Transfer the pork to a plate.

  2. Add the chopped apple and brown sugar to the skillet. Cook over medium heat 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until the apple softens and caramelizes.

  3. Pour in the dry white wine and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer about 1 minute until the liquid is reduced by about half.

  4. Stir in the cooking creme and fresh thyme leaves. Simmer over low heat 2 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.

  5. Return the pork and any juices to the skillet and spoon the sauce over it. Cover and simmer 3 to 4 minutes until the thickest part of the pork reaches 145°F (63°C).

  6. Let the pork rest 3 minutes, then serve with the apple and creme sauce spooned over the top.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pork + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,577 recipes

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

  2. Apple + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,495 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Pork + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,848 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, sugar, apple, white wine):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Cloveabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sugar, apple, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).