Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Frying Salt Pork
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the salt pork and soak it in cold water overnight.
In the morning, if not fresh enough, soak it in hot water and drain.
Roll each piece in flour and place in a sheet iron pan.
Bake and serve
Bake in the oven until browned on both sides at 400°F (200°C).
Serve hot and crisp.
Make a milk gravy from the fat if desired.
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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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Salt pork
- Supplies the fat that renders out and seasons the dish with savory, salty flavor.
- Flour
- Forms a coating that browns and crisps on the outside of each piece.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy when combined with the rendered fat and flour.
The step that matters
Soaking the salt pork. Soaking in cold water draws out surface salt and some brine, so the pork is less overly salty when cooked. Soaking longer or in hot water removes more salt.
“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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