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Pork E. R.

A roast pork leg or loin stuffed with sage, onion, bread crumbs and apple, then finished by stewing in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion 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 E. R.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stuff

  1. Score the skin of the pork leg or loin before roasting.

  2. Mix boiled sage and onion with bread crumbs and chopped apple for stuffing.

  3. Stuff the pork and roast until three-quarters done.

Stew and serve

  1. Transfer the pork to a stewpan with weak broth and let it stew until fully cooked.

  2. Thicken the gravy if desired.

  3. Serve with forcemeat balls and lemon slices, or with sorrel or tomato.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + sagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Apple + sagetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Pork
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing after roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and bind the stuffing so it holds together inside the pork.
Apple
Adds moisture and a mild sweetness that balances the savory pork and sage.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the stuffing as it softens with the sage.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, acidic flavor that cuts through the richness of the pork.

The step that matters

Roast until three-quarters done, then stew. Stopping the roast at three-quarters and finishing in liquid keeps the pork from drying out while it cooks fully through.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, mustard, vinegar, sauce, onion, sage, bread):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, mustard, vinegar, sauce, onion, sage, bread. 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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