Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Pork Flour-gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the pork
Fry the pork in a frying pan.
Add butter to the pan and heat until very hot.
Sprinkle flour over the bottom of the pan and let it brown thoroughly.
Make the gravy
Pour in boiling water (about 1 pint).
Mix heaping tablespoon of flour with sweet milk and stir into the boiling water.
Season with salt and pepper, add a small piece of butter, and cook well.
Serve hot.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Flour
- Browns in the pan fat and then thickens the liquid into a smooth gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat for frying and richness to the finished gravy.
- Sweet milk
- Adds body and creaminess to the gravy.
The step that matters
Browning the flour. Flour must be cooked in the hot fat until it turns golden brown; this toasts the starch and builds flavour. Stirring in the liquid too early leaves a raw, pasty taste and lumps.
“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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