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Chops a LA Maintenon

A French pork chop dish stuffed with a mushroom and parsley mixture, then broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chops a LA Maintenon

serves 6

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mushroom filling

  1. Put one tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan.

  2. When hot add one tablespoonful of flour.

  3. Let the flour cook a few minutes.

  4. Then add four tablespoonfuls of chopped mushrooms, one teaspoonful of parsley, one half teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of pepper.

  5. Moisten with three tablespoonfuls of stock.

  6. Mix well together and set aside to cool.

Stuff and broil the chops

  1. Have six French chops cut one inch thick.

  2. With a sharp knife split the chops in two without separating them at the bone.

  3. Spread the mushroom mixture between the opened chops.

  4. Press the edges well together.

  5. Broil for eight minutes.

  6. Serve with an olive sauce.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Provide the meat that is split and stuffed, cooking through during broiling.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the filling inside the chops.
Flour
Cooked in butter, it thickens the stock to bind the mushroom filling.
Stock
Moistens the filling and helps form a cohesive, savory mixture.
Butter
Fat for cooking the flour and mushrooms, adding richness and browning.

The step that matters

Press the edges well together. If the split chop is not sealed firmly, the filling can leak out during broiling and the chop may cook unevenly. Keeping the edges closed holds the stuffing inside while the meat cooks through.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Turmericabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, mushroom, pepper. 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).

“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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