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Chops, with Apples and Raisins

Pork loin chops seasoned and fried, served with raisins, apple sauce, and spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chops, with Apples and Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and fry

  1. Trim excess fat from the chops and sprinkle with black pepper, ground ginger, cayenne, and curry powder.

  2. Rub the bottom of a frying pan with garlic, melt pork dripping, and fry the chops until browned and cooked through.

  3. Lightly flour the chops before frying.

Raisins and serving

  1. In a separate bowl, mix sultana raisins with a little gravy and a pinch of curry powder.

  2. Serve the chops on a bed of spinach with apple sauce on the side.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  4. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 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

Loin chops
Form the main protein, browning in the fat to develop savory flavor and a crisp surface.
Pork dripping
Fat for frying that conducts heat evenly and helps the chops brown.
Sultana raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture that contrasts with the meat.
Apple sauce
Adds fruity sweetness and mild acidity that balance the rich pork.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma to the frying fat and the chops.

The step that matters

Frying the chops until browned and cooked through. Pork needs enough heat to brown the surface through Maillard reactions, but overcooking dries out lean meat. Browning in hot fat first, then ensuring the centre is fully cooked, gives both flavor and a juicy texture.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ginger, clove, garlic, pork, apple, sauce):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ginger, clove, garlic, pork, apple, sauce. 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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