Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
To Pry Salt Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the salt pork into very thin slices.
Soak the slices in sweet milk for 1 hour or in boiling water for a few moments.
Cut off the rinds from the slices.
Cook
Heat a skillet until hot and brown the slices quickly on both sides.
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.
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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt pork
- Provides fat and savory flavor, and browns to give a crisp edge.
- Sweet milk
- Softens the cured meat and draws out some of its saltiness.
- Boiling water
- Quickly softens the cured meat and draws out some of its saltiness.
The step that matters
Brown the slices quickly on both sides in a hot skillet. A very hot pan browns the thin slices fast on the surface before they dry out and turn tough. Slow cooking over low heat would toughen and dry the pork instead of giving it a crisp, browned edge.
“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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