Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Pork, Hashed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the pork into small slices and sprinkle with salt and a little cayenne.
Combine the butter, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, lemon juice, and mustard in a stewpan and heat until hot.
Cook
Add the slices of meat to the stewpan.
Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, without allowing the sauce to boil.
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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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,816 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,445 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 meat that becomes tender and absorbs the sauce as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour through the warm sauce.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savoury, tangy depth that seasons the sauce.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the savoury sauce.
- Mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts the richness of the butter.
The step that matters
Keep the sauce from boiling. Once the sauce reaches a boil it can separate and turn greasy, and the butter-based emulsion may break. Gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth while the pork warms through and absorbs flavour.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, sauce, ketchup, mustard, pepper):
- Lemonthe original
- Avocadofits about as well
- Limefits about as well
- Red currantfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sauce, ketchup, mustard, 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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