Why it works: Pork and kale work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 177 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Kale with Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the pork
Place a piece of salt pork in a kettle of cold water.
Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes per pound.
Add the kale
Wash and pick the kale.
Add the kale to the kettle with the pork 45 minutes before it's done.
Do not cover the kettle and boil for 30 minutes.
Serve
Drain the mixture and place the pork in the center of a dish with the kale around it.
Garnish with hard-boiled eggs and pour French dressing around it.
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 + kaletop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together177 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,387 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Kale + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt pork
- Supplies fat and savory flavor to the cooking water and the greens.
- Kale
- Forms the main vegetable, softening into a tender, mild green during boiling.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add protein and a mild, creamy contrast to the salty pork and greens.
- French dressing
- Adds acidity and fat that brighten the rich pork and cooked kale.
The step that matters
Adding the kale 45 minutes before the end. Kale is tough and needs a long simmer to become tender, so adding it too late leaves it chewy. Boiling uncovered lets strong-smelling compounds escape and helps the greens keep a fresher color.
Swap the kale
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, egg):
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Kalethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg. 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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