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Pork Chops

Breaded pork chops fried in lard after coating with egg and crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper.

  2. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  3. Dip the pork chops in the egg, then coat them in cracker crumbs or cornmeal.

Fry

  1. Heat plenty of lard in a pan until boiling hot.

  2. Fry the coated pork chops in the hot lard until golden brown.

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. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  2. Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,387 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Pork chops
Main protein that cooks through while the coating crisps around it.
Egg
Binds the crumb or cornmeal coating to the pork so it adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs or cornmeal
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns quickly in hot fat.
Lard
Frying fat that conducts heat evenly and browns and crisps the coating.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. The lard must be boiling hot before the chops go in. Hot fat sets the coating quickly so it seals and crisps instead of soaking up grease and turning soggy. Too cool a pan leads to greasy, pale results.

“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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