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Fried Pork Chops with Onions

Fried pork chops served with fried onion rings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Pork Chops with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the pork chops with salt and white pepper.

  2. Peel and slice the onions into rings.

  3. Season the onions with salt and coat with flour.

Cook

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan.

  2. Fry the chops for 6 minutes on each side.

  3. Fry the onions in boiling fat for 8 minutes until golden.

  4. Drain the onions on a cloth and serve on top of the chops.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White pepper + oniontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Pork + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together791 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

Pork and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,187 recipes: they 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 main protein, which browns in hot fat and stays juicy when cooked briefly.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the chops and onions.
White onions
Become sweet and golden when fried, adding flavour and contrast to the rich chops.
Flour
Coats the onion rings so they brown crisply and hold their shape in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Frying the onions in boiling fat. Flour-coated onions need hot fat to crisp and turn golden quickly. If the fat is not hot enough, they absorb oil and turn soggy instead of crisp.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, flour. 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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