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Pork Pie

A pork loaf wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pork

  1. Remove the rind and part of the under bone from the pork loin and cut it into chops.

  2. Season the chops with pepper and salt.

Make the pastry

  1. For the puff pastry, mix flour, butter, beaten eggs, milk, and salt, then knead well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover the seasoned chops with puff pastry.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, pour in the cullis mixed with the essence of onions and mustard.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the pastry dough as its proteins develop into gluten.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the pastry tender and helps create flaky layers as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the pastry dough and add richness, and help it set and brown in the oven.
Cullis
Adds savoury flavour and moisture to the pork when poured in before serving.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the pork and pastry.

The step that matters

Knead the pastry without overworking it. Kneading develops gluten, which makes dough elastic and tough if overworked. Mixing only until the dough comes together keeps the pastry tender and flaky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, mustard, flour, butter, egg, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, mustard, flour, butter, egg, milk. 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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