Name: Pork Pies
Ingredients: Loin or neck of pork; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; White gravy; White wine; Vinegar

Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Pork Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make round shapes from pastry about the size of a small plate and nearly three inches high.
Trim the rind and excess fat from the pork, then cut it into neat short steaks.
Beat the pork steaks with a rolling pin and season them with pepper and salt.
Pack the seasoned pork closely into the pastry shapes.
Wet the edges of the pastry, place the top on, and pinch it all around.
Make a small hole in the center of the crust.
If serving hot, pour in some white gravy mixed with a little white wine and a teaspoon of vinegar before serving.

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.

White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + white winetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,544 recipes

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