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Pork, Loin of

A pork loin roasted with crackling, served with apple sauce and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sage work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 755 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Pork, Loin of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Score the crackling of the pork loin.

  2. Place the pork in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  3. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer.

  4. Cook for about 2 hours or until tender.

Serve

  1. Serve with apple sauce and gravy made from the drippings.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  4. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Loin of pork
The main cut, whose long gentle simmering makes its connective tissue tender.
Apple sauce
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savoury pork.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth made from the pork drippings.

The step that matters

Simmer gently instead of boiling. A rolling boil toughens meat by tightening its proteins and can make it dry. Holding the water at a gentle simmer lets the connective tissue soften slowly, keeping the pork tender and juicy.

Swap the apple

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

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

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