Name: English Pork or Raised Pie
Ingredients: 1 pound lard; water (as needed); flour (amount as needed); coarse sea salt (to taste); pork (fat and lean, cut into small square pieces); egg (for glazing)

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

English Pork or Raised Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Melt the lard in a little water until hot.
Mix the hot melted lard with flour and a little salt to form a smooth paste.
Divide the paste into pieces and shape each into a round ball, creating a hollow center and raising the walls to 2-4 inches high.
Fill each pie with the seasoned pork pieces.
Fit a lid neatly on top, brush with egg, and bake until light brown in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + porktop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,187 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,387 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

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Roast Pork82 recipes

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English Pork or Raised Pie