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Pork Chops, Fried

Fried pork chops seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked in butter, optionally topped with powdered sage, served with apple sauce.

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 Chops, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the pork chops neatly and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the chops to the pan and fry until thoroughly cooked.

  3. If desired, sprinkle powdered sage over the chops before serving.

  4. Serve with apple sauce.

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. Sage + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Provide the main protein; their half-inch thickness suits frying until cooked through.
Butter
Conducts heat into the pan and adds richness and browning to the chop surface.

The step that matters

Fry until thoroughly cooked. Pork must reach a safe internal temperature throughout. Frying over medium heat cooks the centre without burning the outside, so check doneness rather than relying on colour alone.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Sagethe original
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, butter, apple, sauce. 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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