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Fillet of Pork , with Robert Sauce

A pork fillet stewed with sage, onions, and Robert sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fillet of Pork , with Robert Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the neck or loin of pork and cut off the rind.

Stew

  1. In a stewpan, combine stock and fat from any braise.

  2. Add the pork, cover it with sage and onions, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Lay the rind over the pork and stew for three hours.

Glaze and serve

  1. Remove the pork, dry the fat, and glaze it.

  2. Serve the pork on a dish with Robert sauce.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until tender.
Stock
Provides moisture and liquid in which the pork stews.
Fat from braise
Adds richness and flavour to the stewing liquid and the glazed surface.
Onions
Add aromatic flavour that infuses the pork as it stews.
Sage
Adds herbal aroma that perfumes the pork during stewing.

The step that matters

Dry the fat before glazing. Moisture on the surface stops the glaze from adhering and browning properly, so the fat must be dried first.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

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