Why it works: Pork and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,187 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Salt Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pork
Cut the pork into thin slices.
Fill a skillet halfway with warm or cold water.
Add the pork slices and let them sit until the water boils.
Remove the pork and discard the water.
Fry
Roll the pork slices in flour or cornmeal.
Fry the pork in a skillet until golden brown on both sides.
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.
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Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Its fat renders in the pan, frying the slices and giving them a crisp, savory crust.
- Flour or cornmeal
- Coats the slices so they brown into a crisp, golden surface when fried.
The step that matters
Boiling the pork in water before frying. Simmering the slices in water draws out some of the salt and surface fat, so the pork fries crisp rather than greasy or overly salty. Discard the water afterward so the salt does not return to the meat.
“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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