Name: Chejhire Pork Pic
Ingredients: 1 loin of pork; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; nutmeg to taste; ½ cup white wine (or 1 pint for a large pie); butter; pippins (apples), pared and cored; sugar to sweeten

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chejhire Pork Pic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the skin from the loin of pork and cut it into slices.
Season the pork with pepper, coarse sea salt, and nutmeg.
Prepare a good crust for the pie.

Assemble and bake

Layer the pork in a pie dish.
Add a layer of pippins and sugar to sweeten.
Add another layer of pork.
Pour in the white wine.
Dot the top with butter.
Cover the pie.
Bake in the oven.

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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
White wine + appletop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Nutmeg + appletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,581 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin: Forms the main filling and provides the meat that cooks tender within the pie.
Pippins (apples): Add tartness and fruity sweetness that balance the rich pork.
White wine: Adds moisture and acidity, helping the filling stay juicy as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the top, encouraging browning and a savoury flavour.
Sugar: Sweetens the apple layer, contrasting with the savoury pork.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, white wine, butter, apple, sugar):

Cinnamonfits better
Clovefits better
Thymefits about as well
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, white wine, butter, apple, sugar. 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.