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 ↓
Pried Pork Chops
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the chops
Fry the pork chops like mutton chops.
If desired, sprinkle with powdered sage or summer savory, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Make the gravy
For gravy, skim off some fat from the pan.
Stir in 2 teaspoons of flour until free from lumps.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add 2 cups of sweet milk.
Boil.
Serve in a gravy boat.
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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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,527 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,115 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 chops
- Provide the meat that is fried and served, with their rendered fat forming the base of the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and pan fat into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy, which thickens as it boils.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour until free from lumps. Flour must be fully dispersed in the hot fat before liquid is added, because unmixed starch clumps and cannot be smoothed out later. Stirring it into the fat first lets the starch coat evenly and thicken the milk smoothly.
Swap the sage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour, milk):
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Sagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour, milk. 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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