Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Pork Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Make a good plain pastry.
Cut the pork into very thin slices, 3 inches long and 2 inches wide.
Layer and fill
Layer the pork slices at the bottom of a pie dish.
Sprinkle some parsley, onion, pepper, and salt over the pork.
Add another layer of pork and repeat the seasoning, using nutmeg sparingly.
Continue layering until the dish is full.
Pour in the stock or water and add the ketchup.
Place some pastry around the edge of the dish and cover with the pastry lid.
Bake
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry rises and begins to color.
Then move the pie to the bottom of the oven, cover with paper, and bake for at least 2 hours.
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 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
What each ingredient does
- Pork loin
- Forms the meat filling, becoming tender and juicy during the long, slow bake.
- Plain pastry
- Encloses the filling as a crust that rises and browns in the hot oven.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the meat juices.
- Ketchup
- Adds acidity and sweetness to the stock, seasoning the filling and aiding browning.
The step that matters
Moving the pie to the bottom of the oven and covering it. Covering with paper and placing the pie low slows surface browning, so the pastry does not burn while the pork cooks through over the long bake.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, parsley, pepper, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, pepper, ketchup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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