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Pork Pies

A savory pie made with sliced pork loin, liver, brains, kidneys, and spices, wrapped in crust and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Pork Pies

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 the meat

  1. Remove the rind and some fat from the pork loin, then season with salt and pepper.

  2. For a raised pie, bone the meat and distribute fat and lean evenly, packing it tightly without adding gravy.

  3. For variety, mix half the pork into sausage meat with dried sage and wrap in thin fillets of the remaining pork.

Make the fillings

  1. Fry the pork liver in butter, then pound it with an equal weight of bacon fat and spices until smooth.

  2. Blanch and slice the pork brains, kidneys, and lean meat, then season well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Lay the liver forcemeat inside a raised pie crust, add the sliced meat and bruised bay leaves.

  2. Cover with a lid of crust and bake for 2 to 3 hours at 350°F (175°C), depending on size.

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. Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Sage + livertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork liver
Fried, then pounded smooth with fat, it forms a rich forcemeat that flavours the pie.
Bacon fat
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the liver forcemeat smooth and tender as it bakes.
Pork brains
Blanched and sliced, they add a soft, delicate texture to the filling.
Kidneys
Sliced and seasoned, they add a distinct meaty flavour and chewy texture to the filling.
Lean pork
Provides the main meat body and structure of the filling, with fat distributed through it.
Pie crust
Forms the sealed case that holds the filling and shapes the raised pie.

The step that matters

Packing the meat in a raised pie. Packing the meat tightly without adding gravy keeps the filling dense and sliceable. Excess liquid can make the crust soggy and leave gaps that collapse as the pie bakes.

Swap the sage

The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, meat, liver, butter):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Sagethe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, meat, liver, butter. 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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