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Pork Chops

Pork chops coated in a brown sauce and breadcrumb mixture, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Trim the pork loin and remove the skin.

  2. Cover with paper before roasting.

Make the onion topping

  1. Chop the onions.

  2. Sauté the onions in butter until tender.

  3. Add flour or arrowroot and brown sauce. Mix.

  4. Boil well.

  5. Stir in sage, sugar, salt, and beaten egg yolks.

  6. Remove from heat when set.

  7. Spread the mixture over the pork.

  8. Brown in the oven for a few minutes.

Cook the chops

  1. Cut the pork chops about half an inch thick.

  2. Trim neatly.

  3. Heat butter in a frying pan.

  4. Cook the chops, turning often until browned, about 15 minutes.

  5. Season with minced onion, sage, pepper, and salt.

  6. Dip the chops in beaten egg.

  7. Coat with bread crumbs, minced onions, sage, pepper, and salt.

  8. Fry in butter or ghee.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Flour + sagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the onion mixture as it sets, giving it a smooth, firm texture.
Flour or arrowroot
Thickens the brown sauce so the onion mixture holds together when boiled.
Onions
Soften and sweeten in butter, forming the body of the topping.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the chops when fried.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when set. Egg yolks set and thicken with heat but can curdle or turn grainy if overcooked, so the mixture should be taken off the heat as soon as it thickens.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sauce, sage, sugar, egg, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sauce, sage, sugar, egg, 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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