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Pork, Chine of

A pork chine dish that may be boiled or roasted, served with an onion and gravy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork, Chine of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Salt the pork chine for 3-4 days before cooking.

  2. Place the chine in plenty of water to boil.

  3. Boil slowly, skimming thoroughly.

  4. Serve garnished with greens.

Roast

  1. Score the skin of the chine.

  2. Roast for 20 minutes per pound.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry sliced onions in butter until lightly browned, then pour off the oil.

  2. Add gravy, mustard, vinegar, salt, and sugar.

  3. Boil the sauce.

  4. Serve the sauce with the pork.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chine
The main cut, whose fat and skin become tender and crisp with salting, boiling and roasting.
Butter
Carries the onions and adds richness, helping them brown lightly in the pan.
Onions
Browning in butter develops sweetness and savoury depth for the sauce.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving body and savoury flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that cuts through the richness of the pork and gravy.
Sage
Contributes a strong aromatic herb flavour that suits fatty pork.

The step that matters

Boil slowly, skimming thoroughly. A slow simmer with frequent skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the liquid and taint the sauce. A hard rolling boil can toughen the meat and keep impurities mixed in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, vinegar, sugar, sage, thyme, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, vinegar, sugar, sage, thyme, parsley. 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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