Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Pork Pies
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the pie
Prepare a crust as you would for chicken pies.
Keep the lean and fat pork pieces separate.
Season the meat with pepper, salt, and sage.
Pack the fat and lean pork into the pie in alternate layers until filled.
Cover with the top crust and decorate as desired.
Brush the top with beaten egg.
Bake and fill with gravy
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until cooked through.
Once the pie is done, raise the top crust and fill it with gravy.
Serve the remaining gravy in a tureen.
Make the gravy
Stew the bones and trimmings to make gravy.
Boil the gravy until it jellies when cold, then strain, thicken, and flavor.
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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Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pork + meattop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,208 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,527 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,449 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork meat
- Forms the filling, with fat and lean layers giving the pie its moisture and richness.
- Egg
- Beaten egg brushed on top browns the crust and gives it a glossy finish.
- Pork bones and trimmings
- Stewed with water to produce the gravy, which sets to a jelly when cold from natural gelatin.
The step that matters
Boil the gravy until it jellies when cold. Collagen from bones and trimmings must be reduced enough to set when chilled. Too little boiling leaves a thin gravy that will not jelly, and the filled pie will be runny.
Swap the sage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork, meat, pepper, egg):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Sagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, meat, pepper, egg. 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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