Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Excellent Pork Pies, to Eat Cold
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Raise the common boiled crust into a round or oval form.
Prepare small bits of pork from a hog, or use meat from a sweet bone.
Beat the pork with a rolling pin and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Assemble and bake
Layer the pork in the crust, keeping fat and lean separate, up to the top.
Lay on the lid, smooth the edge, and pinch it closed.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until solid.
Do not add bone or water to the pie.
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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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Common boiled crust
- Forms the sealed shell that holds the pork and keeps it moist while baking.
- Small bits of pork
- Forms the filling, which sets firm as it cooks and gives the pie its body.
- Fat from pork
- Adds richness and moisture to the lean meat as it cooks.
The step that matters
Layering the pork with fat and lean separate. Keeping fat and lean apart lets the fat render and baste the lean meat evenly, so the filling stays juicy rather than dry in some spots and greasy in others.
“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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