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Pork Steak

A pork steak seasoned, coated, fried, and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Season the pork steak with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Roll the steak in flour, or dip it in beaten egg and coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the steak slowly in hot lard (400°F / 200°C) until well done and nicely browned on both sides.

  2. Sprinkle powdered sage on the steak if desired.

  3. Make a rich brown gravy as you would for pork chops.

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.

  1. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Flour + sagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pork steak
Main protein that becomes tender and juicy when cooked through slowly.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the surface brown evenly during frying.
Lard
Hot frying fat that browns the coating and carries heat to the steak.

The step that matters

Fry the steak slowly in hot lard. Frying too fast can scorch the coating before the thick steak cooks through. Steady, moderate heat lets the centre reach well done while the outside browns evenly.

Swap the sage

The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour. 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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