Name: English Pork-pie
Ingredients: Pie crust (not very rich); Thinly sliced bacon; Thinly sliced potatoes; Chopped or finely sliced onions; Lean fresh pork, cut into small pieces; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Sage; Gravy or thickened water with butter

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 ↓

English Pork-pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare a pie crust and line the sides of a deep pie dish.
Layer the bottom with bacon, potatoes, onions, and pork.
Season with pepper, salt, and sage.
Pour gravy or thickened water with butter over the layers.
Cover with the remaining pie crust.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1½ hours.
If the pie browns too much, cover it with thick brown paper.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 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

Swap the sage

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

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pork, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.