Why it works: Milk and pork 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 Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Add sour milk and enough flour to make a batter.
Fry and serve
Prepare the pork as usual and dip the pieces in the batter.
Fry the battered pork in hot fat until golden brown.
Serve the pork with the light and delicate batter.
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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Milk + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + porktop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter so it coats the pork and holds together in the fat.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity tenderises the coating and gives a light, delicate batter texture.
- Flour
- Forms the body of the batter that sets and browns as it fries.
- Pork
- The main ingredient, cooked through inside its golden coating.
The step that matters
Frying the battered pork in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping and browning quickly. Hot fat sets the coating fast, keeping the pork moist inside.
“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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