Name: Italian Pork Cheese
Ingredients: 1 pound lean pork; 2 pounds inside fat; 3 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 1½ teaspoons black pepper; ½ teaspoon ground mace; 1 small nutmeg, grated; 1 large tablespoon mixed parsley, thyme, sage, and sweet basil (if available)

Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Italian Pork Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

1 pound lean pork
2 pounds inside fat
3 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1½ teaspoons black pepper
½ teaspoon ground mace
1 small nutmeg, grated
1 large tablespoon mixed parsley, thyme, sage, and sweet basil (if available)

Directions

The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Chop the lean pork and fat into small pieces.
Mix the pork and fat with salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg, and minced herbs.

Bake and serve

Press the mixture evenly into a shallow tin.
Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 to 1½ hours.
Serve cold, sliced.

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.

Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,768 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,351 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,445 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

Lean pork: Provides the meaty body and structure of the loaf once baked and set.
Inside fat: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the cooked pork tender and sliceable.
Black pepper: Adds sharp, aromatic heat that balances the richness of the fat.
Ground mace: Contributes warm, aromatic flavour that complements the pork.
Nutmeg: Adds warm, sweet aroma that deepens the spiced flavour.

The step that matters

Bake in a gentle oven. A gentle oven cooks the pork and fat slowly so the proteins set without drying out or the fat separating. Pressing the mixture evenly into the tin helps it bake uniformly and slice cleanly once cold.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, thyme, sage, basil):

Marjoramfits better
Winter savoryfits better
Rosemaryfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, thyme, sage, basil. 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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Italian Pork Cheese