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Pork Cheese

A pork cheese made by mixing diced roast pork with herbs, spices, and gravy, then baking until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the pork into small dice, adjusting the amount of fat to your taste.

  2. Add the parsley, sage, mixed herbs, lemon rind, nutmeg, and a generous amount of salt and pepper, then mix well.

Bake and set

  1. Press the mixture tightly into a mold and fill it with gravy.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  3. Once cold, turn out of the mold and garnish with parsley.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Sage + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast pork
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it substance and meaty texture.
Gravy or stock
Adds moisture and, when strong and cooled, sets into a jelly that holds the cheese together.

The step that matters

Press the mixture tightly into the mold. Packing the diced pork firmly removes air pockets so the cheese slices cleanly once cold. Loose packing leaves gaps, and the gravy then cannot bind the pieces into a firm set.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, parsley, sage, lemon, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, sage, lemon, pepper. 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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