Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pork Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Assemble
Line pie pans with short pastry.
Place pork squares in the pans and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, sago, and a little flour mixed with water.
Wet the edge of the pastry, cover with a top piece, and pinch the edges together.
Bake
Make a small hole in the top, wash with yolk of egg if available, and bake.
Bake for about one hour, depending on size.
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 + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,387 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Good short paste
- Forms the crisp, sturdy shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
- Pork
- Forms the filling and releases juices as it cooks through in the oven.
- Finely rubbed sago
- Starch that thickens the pork juices as they heat, keeping the filling moist.
- Flour
- Mixed with water and added to the filling, it helps thicken the juices.
- Yolk of egg
- Brushed on the top before baking, it promotes a golden, glossy browning.
The step that matters
Make a small hole in the top. The hole lets steam escape during baking. Without it, pressure builds inside the sealed pie and can split the crust or push out the juices.
“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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