Name: Fillet of Pork, with Robert Sauce
Ingredients: 1 neck or loin of pork; coarse sea salt; sage; onions; good stock; fat from braise

Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fillet of Pork, with Robert Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Bone the pork and cut off the rind.
In a stewpan, combine stock and fat.
Add the pork, cover with sage and onions, and sprinkle with salt.
Lay the rind over the pork and stew for three hours.
Remove the pork, dry the fat, and glaze it.
Serve with Robert sauce on the dish and place the pork on top.

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.

Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).