Why it works: Pork and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,358 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Leg of Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Lay the leg of pork in coarse sea salt for one week.
Place the salted pork in a pot and cover it with water.
Cook and serve
Bring the water to a boil and ensure it remains boiling throughout cooking.
Cook for approximately 15 minutes per pound of pork.
Serve with pease pudding, turnips, or greens.
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 + turniptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,358 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leg of pork
- Main meat; long cooking in boiling water turns it tender and juicy.
- Coarse sea salt
- Cures the pork over a week, seasoning it and firming its texture.
The step that matters
Keep the water boiling throughout cooking. If the water drops below a boil, the pork cooks unevenly and the meat can turn tough, so the heat must stay steady for the whole cooking time.
“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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