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Pork Potpie

A hearty stew of pork, vegetables, and dumplings served with a dandelion leaf salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 Potpie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stew

  1. If using salt pork, freshen it well.

  2. Fry the pork cubes until browned.

  3. Add the sliced onion, sage, thyme, and parsley.

  4. Cover with water and boil for 2 hours.

  5. Add the chopped pepper or cayenne and salt if using fresh pork.

Add the vegetables

  1. Add the mixed vegetables and boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  2. Stir in the potatoes and dumplings.

Make the dumplings and finish

  1. Cover and boil for 20 minutes.

  2. To make the dumplings, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.

  3. Mix in the beaten eggs and milk until smooth.

  4. Drop spoonfuls into the stew.

  5. Serve the potpie with a salad of dandelion leaves dressed with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Supplies the main meat; browning adds savory flavor and tender texture as it simmers.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens into the broth.
Potatoes
Starch thickens the broth slightly and gives a soft, hearty texture.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dumplings as they cook.
Eggs
Bind the dumpling batter and help it set into a tender structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking, lifting the dumplings to make them light.

The step that matters

Fry the pork cubes until browned. Browning the pork before simmering builds deeper, savory flavor through the Maillard reaction, so the broth tastes richer. Pale meat stays bland.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sage, thyme, parsley, pepper, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, thyme, parsley, pepper, carrot, turnip. 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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