Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Pork, Minced
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
If you don't have gravy or good stock, boil the bones and trimmings for at least 1 hour, then strain and boil rapidly until reduced to ½ pint.
Make the stew
Cut the pork into very small dice.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the onions until lightly browned.
Add the apples and fry until tender but not broken.
Sprinkle in the flour and a good pinch of mustard, stir, and cook gently for 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the stock and stir until boiling.
Season to taste, then boil gently for 5 minutes.
Add the minced pork and lemon juice, and let the mixture stand just below simmering point for about 30 minutes.
Serve
Serve in a border of rice or mashed potatoes, garnished with toasted bread.
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,816 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold roast pork
- Provides the meat that is cut into dice and gently heated through in the stew.
- Onions
- Soften and brown in butter, adding savoury sweetness and depth to the base.
- Apples
- Cooked until tender but intact, adding gentle sweetness and a fruity contrast to the savoury meat.
- Flour
- Cooked with the butter and onions to thicken the stock into a smooth sauce.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid of the stew, carrying flavour and setting the sauce consistency with the flour.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the onions and apples, adding richness and browning flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the minced pork and lemon juice. Once the meat is in, the mixture should only stand just below simmering. Boiling toughens cooked meat and can break up the apples, while gentle heat keeps the pork tender and lets the flavours blend.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, butter, flour, lemon, mustard, pepper):
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Mangofits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, butter, flour, lemon, mustard, pepper. 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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