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Pork, Minced

A savory stew of diced pork, onions, apples, and stock seasoned with mustard, lemon, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Pork, Minced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Boil the bones and trimmings for at least 1 hour.

  2. Strain and reduce the liquid to 1 cup.

Make the stew

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the onions until lightly browned.

  3. Add the apples and fry until tender but not broken.

  4. Sprinkle in the flour and a good pinch of mustard, then stir the mixture.

  5. Cook gently for 3 to 4 minutes.

  6. Add the stock and stir until boiling.

  7. Season with salt and pepper.

  8. Boil gently for 5 minutes.

  9. Add the diced pork and lemon juice.

  10. Allow the mixture to sit just below simmering for about 1 hour.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast pork
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long, gentle cooking in the stew.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and savory depth in the base of the stew.
Apples
Soften while keeping their shape, adding sweetness and a fruity acidity to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce when cooked with the butter.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the stew, carrying flavor through the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor from the onions and apples through the stew.

The step that matters

Fry the apples until tender but not broken. Apples soften quickly and can fall apart in the pan. Stopping when they are tender but still holding their shape keeps the texture distinct in the finished stew.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, butter, flour, lemon, mustard, pepper):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, butter, flour, lemon, 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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