Name: Belly of Pork
Ingredients: belly of pork; sage; sweet herbs; minced shallots

Why it works: Sage and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 181 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Belly of Pork

Ingredients

belly of pork
sage
sweet herbs
minced shallots

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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Strew the inside of the pork belly thickly with sage, sweet herbs, and minced shallots.
Roll the belly tightly and tie it together.
Bake or roast the pork belly until cooked through.

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 + shallottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together181 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pork + shallottop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,316 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).