Name: Leicestershire Pork Pie
Ingredients: 2 pounds pork (fat and lean); pepper; coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon chopped sage; 1 teaspoon chopped thyme; hot water pastry (for crust)

Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Leicestershire Pork Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

Cut the pork into square pieces about the size of a cobnut.
Season the pork with pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and thyme.
Set the seasoned pork aside in a cool place.

Assemble and bake

Prepare hot water pastry for the crust.
Assemble the pie with the seasoned pork and cover with the pastry.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours.

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.

Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork: Provides the meat and fat that make up the body of the filling and keep it juicy as it cooks.
Hot water pastry: Forms the sturdy crust that holds the filling and shapes the pie while it bakes.
Sage: Adds a savoury, aromatic herbal flavour that complements the pork.
Thyme: Adds a savoury, aromatic herbal flavour that complements the pork.