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English Pork Pie

A savory pie filled with bacon, potatoes, onions, pork, and sage, topped with crust and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

English Pork Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line the sides of a deep pie dish with pie paste.

Fill and bake

  1. Layer the bottom with thinly sliced bacon.

  2. Add a layer of thinly sliced potatoes and finely chopped onions.

  3. Place the small pieces of lean pork on top.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and sage.

  5. Pour leftover gravy or thickened water over the filling.

  6. Cover with a crust, cut a vent, and bake for about 1½ hours.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean pork
Provides the meat and savory body of the filling as it cooks.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor that seasons the filling from below.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the filling set and feel substantial.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften during baking.
Gravy or thickened water
Supplies moisture so the filling cooks tender rather than drying out.

The step that matters

Cover with a crust, cut a vent, and bake for about 1½ hours. The vent lets steam escape so the filling does not build pressure and make the crust soggy. The long, moderate bake lets the lean pork cook through and become tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, pepper, sage, 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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