Why it works: Pork and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,208 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Pork Bmothebed in Apples
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim the fat off the pork chops and place them in a braising dish.
In a separate bowl, mix the meat stock with the browned flour and butter until thickened.
Pour the mixture over the pork chops.
Braise
Cover and cook for 1½ hours.
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 + meattop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,208 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Pork chops
- The main protein, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in the liquid.
- Meat stock
- Forms the braising liquid and adds savory meaty flavor to the sauce.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the stock into a sauce and adds a toasty, nutty flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the sauce, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Cover and cook. Keeping the dish covered traps steam so the liquid does not reduce and the chops do not dry out. Gentle, moist heat slowly breaks down connective tissue in the pork, making it tender.
“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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