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Pork and Apple Pie

A savory pie made with pork, apples, potatoes, onions, and sage, baked in a deep dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork and Apple 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

  1. Wipe the pork and cut it into small pieces, removing all skin, bone, and excess fat. Add seasonings and mix well.

  2. Scald the onions, then slice them.

  3. Slice the potatoes and apples.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease a deep baking dish and layer the ingredients alternately, with a thick layer of potatoes on top.

  2. Pour the stock over the layers and dot with drippings.

  3. Place the pie in a tin of hot water and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 3 hours, covered for the first 2.5 hours and uncovered for the last half hour.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Apple + sagetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pork
Provides the meat and richness that forms the body of the pie.
Potatoes
Form a thick starchy top layer that becomes tender and helps seal the dish.
Stock
Adds moisture that keeps the layered filling from drying out during baking.
Apples
Add sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the rich pork.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and moisture as they soften through the layers.
Drippings
Add fat that enriches the top and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Covering the pie for the first 2.5 hours. Keeping the dish covered traps steam so the pork cooks through gently and stays moist. Uncovering for the final half hour lets the potato top dry and brown.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, sage, potato, pepper. 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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