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Roast Loin of Pork

Roast pork loin with potatoes, apple sauce, celery tops, and pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Loin of Pork

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and wipe the pork, then score the skin with a sharp knife.

  2. Season the pork with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Place the pork in a dripping pan and pour 1 cup of water into the pan.

Roast

  1. Bake in a 400 °F (200 °C) oven for 15 minutes per pound, basting frequently with the drippings.

  2. When halfway done, wash and wipe the potatoes and add them to the pan.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, place the pork on a heated platter.

  2. Serve with its own gravy and apple sauce, garnished with celery tops and pickles.

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.

  1. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Provides the main meat, which cooks through slowly while staying moist.
Potatoes
Cook alongside the pork in the drippings, absorbing flavour and becoming tender.
Apple sauce
Adds a sweet, tart contrast that balances the rich roasted pork.

The step that matters

Basting with the drippings. Basting frequently keeps the surface moist and helps the skin and meat brown evenly. Without it, the outside can dry out before the centre is cooked.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, potato, sauce, celery):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, potato, sauce, celery. 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.

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