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Pork Tenderloins

Pork tenderloins fried and served with a gravy made from flour, butter, milk or cream, and optional Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pork Tenderloins

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the pork

  1. Fry the pork tenderloins in a little lard, turning to cook through.

  2. Remove the tenderloins and keep them hot.

Make the gravy

  1. In the hot fat, dredge a little flour to make a gravy.

  2. If needed, add a little butter or lard and stir until browned.

  3. Add a little milk or cream, stir briskly, and pour over the tenderloins.

  4. Optionally, add Worcestershire sauce to the gravy.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Pork tenderloins
The main protein, cooked through in hot fat until done.
Flour
Thickens the pan drippings into a gravy as it cooks in the fat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the flour brown in the pan.
Milk or cream
Adds liquid and creaminess, turning the thickened base into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the milk or cream. Stirring briskly as the liquid goes in keeps the flour from clumping. Pouring in cold liquid to a hot roux can make it seize, so add it gradually while stirring.

“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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