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English Pork-pie

A savory pie filled with bacon, potatoes, onions, pork, and seasoned with pepper, salt, and sage, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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. Make a pie crust and line a deep pie dish with it.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the bottom with bacon, potatoes, onions, and pork.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and sage.

  3. Pour gravy or thickened water mixed with butter over the layers.

  4. Cover with the pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1½ hours.

  5. If the pie browns too much, cover it with thick brown paper.

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

Pork
Provides the meat and richness that flavours the filling as it cooks.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the filling and moistens the layers.
Potatoes
Bulk the filling and absorb cooking juices, giving a soft, hearty texture.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and mingle with the meat and fat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, improving flavour and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Covering the pie if it browns too much. The top crust can darken faster than the filling cooks through. Covering it with brown paper shields it from direct heat while the pork and potatoes finish cooking.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Sagethe original

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