Name: Little Pork Pies for Breakfast
Ingredients: 3 ½ pounds all-purpose flour; 1 pound lard; 1 ½ pints water; 3 teaspoons black pepper; 6 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 5 pounds pork, cut into small pieces

Why it works: Pepper and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Little Pork Pies for Breakfast

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Boil the lard and water together.
Pour the boiling mixture over the flour, make a well in the center of the flour, and mix well.
Let the dough rest at room temperature for 4 hours.

Shape and fill the pies

Mold the dough into pie shapes.
Fill the pies with the seasoned meat.
Add a little water to the pies.
Cover the pies with a lid.
Pinch the edges of the pies.
Trim the pies with scissors.
Let the pies stand for at least 4 hours before baking.

Bake and serve

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.
After baking, pour gravy made from pork bones into the hole in the lid.

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.

Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + porktop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,187 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and pork 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the gluten-forming structure that holds the hot-water crust together.
Lard: Fat that shortens gluten strands, giving the crust a tender, crumbly texture.
Pork: Main filling; its fat and juices keep the meat moist as it cooks.
Black pepper: Adds sharp aroma and gentle heat to the seasoned filling.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling mixture over the flour. The hot water and melted lard must be mixed into the flour while still boiling. The heat swells the starch and keeps the fat liquid, so the dough stays pliable enough to mold into shapes.

“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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Little Pork Pies for Breakfast