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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 pork

  1. Fry the pork cubes until browned.

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

  3. Cover with water and boil for 2 hours.

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

Add the vegetables and dumplings

  1. Add the mixed vegetables and boil for another 30 minutes.

  2. Add the potatoes and dumplings, cover, and boil for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a large platter 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
Browning and simmering give the pork savory flavour and tender meat in the broth.
Mixed vegetables
Carrots, turnips, and parsnips add sweetness, body, and texture to the stew.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, thickening the broth and adding starch.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dumplings, which set as they steam in the broth.
Eggs
Bind the dumpling batter and help it set firm and tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the dumplings rise and stay light.

The step that matters

Boiling the dumplings with the lid on. Dumplings need to cook through in the simmering liquid. Keeping the pot covered traps steam so the tops set and rise, while a lid left off can cool the surface and leave them dense.

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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