Name: Fried Salt Pork, with Cream Gravy
Ingredients: Salt pork, sliced thin; Cold water; ½ cup flour; 2 tablespoons fat (from frying); 2 tablespoons flour (for gravy); 1 pint milk; Pepper; Coarse sea salt (to taste)

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, with Cream Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

Soak the salt pork slices in cold water for 1 hour, then drain and dry on a napkin.
Heat a frying pan until very hot.
Dredge each piece of meat in flour and fry until crisp.

Make the cream gravy

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan.
Stir 2 tablespoons of flour into the remaining fat and cook for 2 minutes, stirring well.
Slowly add 1 pint of milk, stirring until the gravy is smooth.
Cook the gravy for 1 minute, then season with pepper and salt if needed.
Pour the gravy over the meat and serve.

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.

Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,386 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Salt pork: Provides the savory, salty meat that is fried until crisp.
Flour: Coats the meat for a crisp browned crust and thickens the gravy with the fat.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the gravy, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Fat from frying: Carries flavor from the pork and forms the roux that thickens the gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the fat. Cooking the flour in the fat for two minutes toasts it and removes its raw taste, while stirring keeps it smooth. Adding the milk slowly and stirring keeps lumps from forming as the starch thickens the gravy.

“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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Fried Salt Pork, with Cream Gravy