Skip to main content
Main

Pork Chops and Apples

Pork chops sautéed with sliced apples, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,581 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Pork Chops and Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the apples, cut them into eighths, and remove the cores.

  2. Trim most of the bone from the pork chops.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a tablespoon of fat in a dripping pan over medium heat until it smokes.

  2. Add the pork chops and apples to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and fry until browned on both sides.

  3. Serve neatly arranged on a hot platter.

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. Apple + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  3. Apple + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,026 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

Pork chops
Provide the main protein, which browns in the hot fat and develops savory flavor.
Sub-acid apples
Soften during frying and add a tart-sweet contrast that balances the rich pork.
Fat
Conducts heat into the pan and promotes browning on the surface of the chops and apples.

The step that matters

Heating the fat until it smokes. Fat that is hot enough sears the surfaces quickly, producing browning rather than steaming. Too cool a pan lets juices leak out and the chops turn grey and dry.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, 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.

More pork chops with apples recipes

and Raisins 4 See all 2 →

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesApple SoupApple Soup33 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes