Name: Pork Steaks and Apples
Ingredients: Pork loin steaks; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Hot lard; Apples

Why it works: Pork and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,581 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Pork Steaks and Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Trim excess fat from the pork steaks and season with pepper and salt.
Preheat a grill or gridiron over the fire and lightly grease it.
Place the seasoned steaks on the grill and broil until fully cooked but not dry, turning several times.
Peel, core, and slice the apples.
Fry the apple slices in hot lard until golden.
Serve the fried apples around the pork steaks.

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 + appletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,581 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,026 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).