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Pork Steaks and Tenderloins

Broiled pork steaks and tenderloins seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, onion and lemon juice, finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Pork Steaks and Tenderloins

Ingredients

Directions

Broil

  1. Broil the pork over a clear fire, turning every two minutes for 20 to 25 minutes.

Season and serve

  1. Place on a hot dish and season with pepper, salt, and powdered sage.

  2. Sprinkle with onion juice and lemon juice, then add small bits of butter.

  3. Cover tightly and keep over hot water for 10 minutes before serving.

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 + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Pork steaks or tenderloins
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through by broiling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the hot meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the pork.
Onion juice
Adds savory onion flavor to the meat.

The step that matters

Covering and holding over hot water. Holding the pork covered over hot water keeps it warm and lets the juices redistribute, which helps it stay moist before serving. Holding too long or too hot can dry the surface and overcook the meat.

Swap the onion

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

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

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