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Salt Pork with Gravy

Salt pork with gravy is a dish of sliced pork simmered in water, then fried and served with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Salt Pork with Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the pork

  1. Place the sliced pork in a frying pan and cover with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil slowly.

  3. Pour off the water and fry the pork slowly until light brown, turning often.

  4. Remove the pork and pour out excess grease if necessary, leaving about 5 tablespoons in the pan.

Make the gravy

  1. Add the flour to the hot fat and stir until smooth and light brown.

  2. Remove from heat, add the milk or water, and stir well.

  3. Return to heat and stir until the gravy thickens.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve the gravy in a gravy boat.

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. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Flour
Forms a roux with the pork fat that thickens the gravy as it cooks.
Pork fat
Carries flavor from the fried pork and provides the base for the roux.
Milk or water
Liquid that hydrates the roux and turns it into a smooth, pourable gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the hot fat. Flour must be stirred constantly so it cooks evenly into the fat without lumps or scorching. Cooking the roux until light brown removes raw flour taste and builds flavor before the liquid is added.

“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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