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Pork Cheese

A baked pork dish seasoned with herbs and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold roast pork into fine pieces without chopping.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, mace, parsley, sage, herbs, and lemon peel.

  3. Mix all ingredients well and place in a mold.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the mold with gravy and bake at 400°F (200°C) for an hour or more.

  2. Once cold, turn out of the mold and serve.

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.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast pork
Forms the bulk of the set loaf, giving it body and meaty texture.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture, helping the loaf stay tender as it cooks.
Good, strong gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor while the loaf bakes and sets.
Sage
Contributes aromatic, savory herbal flavor that complements the pork.

The step that matters

Fill the mold with gravy and bake. The gravy must surround the pork so the loaf stays moist while baking. Cooking for the full time ensures the loaf is heated through and holds together when it cools and is turned out.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, parsley, sage, lemon. 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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