Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
A Loin of Pork
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rub the loin of pork with salad oil 2-3 hours before cooking.
Score the crackling and baste frequently while cooking.
Cook
Cook the loin slowly at first, hanging it by the middle to ensure even cooking.
After it is half done, hang it by one end to finish cooking.
Cook for nearly 2 hours until done.
Serve
Serve with sage and onion sauce, apple sauce, and potatoes.
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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Sage + appletop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together755 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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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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Sage + potatotop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together386 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Loin of pork
- Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat that is cooked and carved.
- Salad oil
- Coats the surface to help the skin brown and crisp during roasting.
- Sage leaves
- Adds a savoury, aromatic herb flavour that complements the pork.
The step that matters
Cook the loin slowly at first, then turn it. Slow initial cooking lets the centre heat evenly without drying the outside, and rotating the loin partway through helps it cook uniformly on all sides.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sage, onion, sauce, potato):
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Lemonfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, onion, sauce, potato. 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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