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 ↓
Fried Salt Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Lightly fry the thin slices of pickled pork.
In a bowl, mix the flour, milk, and eggs to create a batter.
Batter and fry
Immerse the fried pork in the batter until completely covered.
Fry the battered pork until it turns light brown.
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).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pickled pork
- Provides the salty, savory flavor that is the centerpiece of the dish.
- Flour
- Forms the body of the batter that coats the pork and crisps when fried.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set and brown during frying.
- Milk
- Thins the flour and eggs into a coating batter and adds softness to the crust.
The step that matters
Frying the battered pork until light brown. Frying at the right heat sets the batter quickly and browns it. If the oil is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy. If it is too hot, the outside darkens before the coating sets.
“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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