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Pork Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes

A roasted pork tenderloin served with sweet potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 Tenderloin and Sweet Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pork

  1. Wipe the pork tenderloin.

  2. Place the pork tenderloin in a dripping pan.

  3. Brown the tenderloin quickly in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Sprinkle the tenderloin with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and powdered sage.

Prepare the sweet potatoes

  1. Pare the sweet potatoes.

  2. Parboil the sweet potatoes for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain the sweet potatoes.

Roast together

  1. Bake the tenderloin for 45 minutes, basting every 15 minutes.

  2. Add the sweet potatoes to the pan with the pork tenderloin.

  3. Cook the sweet potatoes until soft, basting them while basting the pork tenderloin.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Sage + sweet potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together62 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Pepper + sweet potatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

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

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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 tenderloin
Provides the main lean meat that is cooked through and kept moist by basting.
Sweet potatoes
Parboiling softens them, then roasting in the pan makes them tender and lightly caramelised.
Powdered sage
Adds an earthy, aromatic herb flavour that seasons the pork surface.

The step that matters

Brown the tenderloin quickly in a hot oven. A short, hot sear at 400°F sets the surface and builds browned flavour before the longer, gentler bake. Skipping or underdoing it leaves the meat pale and less flavourful.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

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