Why it works: Pork and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
A Hint for Pork Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the crust
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a pie dish with the bottom crust.
Place a handful of rice on the crust to prevent bubbling.
Bake the crust for a few minutes until set.
Fill and bake
Partially cook the pork before adding it to the pie.
Cover with the upper crust and bake until golden.
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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Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork
- Forms the savory filling and releases fat and flavor as it cooks.
- Rice
- Weighs down the bottom crust during baking so it stays flat instead of bubbling.
- Pie crust
- Forms the container and structure, browning and crisping in the oven.
The step that matters
Partially cook the pork before adding it to the pie. Raw meat in a pie often will not reach full doneness before the crust browns. Partial cooking gives the pork a head start so it finishes cooking evenly with the crust.
“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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