Why it works: Flour and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,187 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pork in Batter
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder.
Gradually add water to form a thin batter.
Fry the pork
Dip freshened salt pork pieces into the batter.
Fry each piece in hot fat until browned.
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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Flour + porktop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and pork barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,187 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the batter as it sets during frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making it lighter and more puffed when fried.
- Salt pork
- Provides the meat and fat that flavour the coating and the finished dish.
The step that matters
Fry each piece in hot fat until browned. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy and heavy instead of crisping. Frying in hot fat sets the coating quickly, so it browns and stays crisp.
“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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