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Pork Pie

A savory pie made with pork, pepper, salt, puff pastry, onions, mustard, and cullis.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Cut the loin of pork into chops, removing the rind and bone.

  2. Cut the pork into pieces and season well with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover the seasoned pork with puff pastry.

  2. Bake the pie until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Before serving, add cullis mixed with the essence of two onions and a little mustard.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,445 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

Loin of pork
Forms the meat filling, providing the main savoury flavour and substance of the pie.
Puff pastry
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven, giving a crisp, golden crust.
Cullis
Adds moisture and concentrated savoury flavour to the pork when added before serving.
Mustard
Adds a sharp, acidic bite that balances the richness of the pork and sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the cullis before serving. Cullis is added after baking, so it should be mixed in well and not boiled hard. Heating it gently keeps its flavour clean and prevents the pastry and sauce from becoming soggy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, mustard. 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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