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Pork Chops

A pan‑fried pork chop seasoned with onion, sage, salt, pepper, optionally breaded with egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chops

  1. Trim the pork chops neatly.

Cook

  1. Heat a frying pan with a bit of butter.

  2. Add the chops and cook, turning until browned all over, about 15 minutes.

  3. Check one chop for doneness; if done, season with minced onion, sage, salt, and pepper.

Bread and fry

  1. For a breaded version, beat the eggs with a little salt and mix in chopped herbs.

  2. Dip each chop in the egg mixture, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot lard or drippings until light brown.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Provide the main meat, which browns and firms as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumbs to the chops and help form a set coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the pan for initial browning.

The step that matters

Check one chop for doneness. Pork that is overcooked turns dry and tough, while undercooked pork is unsafe. Checking one chop before seasoning lets the cook judge doneness before the rest is finished.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, sage, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sage, pepper, egg, bread. 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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