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Chine of Pork

A roasted pork chine served with a mushroom gravy made from onions, gravy sauce, vinegar, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chine of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Salt the pork chine for three days.

  2. Roast the salted chine until cooked through.

Make the gravy

  1. Fry the sliced onions in oil or butter until they are colored.

  2. Pour off the excess oil, then add gravy sauce, chopped mushrooms, vinegar, and prepared mustard.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil and serve it over the roasted chine.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chine
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and flavorful through salting and roasting.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat deeply and draws out moisture that is reabsorbed to help it stay juicy.
Onions
Caramelize when fried, adding sweetness and deep browned flavor to the gravy.
Chopped mushrooms
Add earthy savory flavor and body to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the rich, savory gravy.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp tang and emulsifying character that rounds out the gravy.

The step that matters

Fry the onions until colored. Onions must brown deeply to develop sweetness and savory depth through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Pale onions leave the gravy flat and sharp.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, sauce, mushroom, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sauce, mushroom, vinegar, mustard. 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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