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Italian Pork Cheese

A savory pork cheese made with lean pork, pork fat, salt, pepper, and herbs, baked and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage 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 ↓

Italian Pork Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped lean pork and fat.

  2. Add the salt, pepper, and minced herbs; mix thoroughly.

  3. Press the mixture evenly into a shallow tin.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours until cooked through.

  2. Let it cool, then slice and serve cold.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean pork
Provides the lean meat that gives the loaf its sliceable body.
Inside fat
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the lean meat from drying out as it cooks.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps it hold together when pressed and chilled.
Mixed herbs
Add aroma and savory flavour throughout the mixture.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture evenly into the tin. Even pressing removes large air pockets and gives uniform density, so the loaf cooks evenly and slices cleanly once cold.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, parsley, thyme, sage):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, parsley, thyme, sage. 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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