Skip to main content
Main

Pork Tenderloins

Pork tenderloins fried and served with a flour‑based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. 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 and serve

  1. In the hot fat, dredge in a little flour and stir until browned.

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

  3. Optionally, add Worcestershire sauce to the gravy before serving.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Provide the main meat, which cooks through in the hot lard.
Flour
Thickens the pan drippings into a gravy and browns in the hot fat.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the thickened base into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Stir the flour until browned, then add the milk briskly. Flour must cook in the hot fat so its starch can brown and flavour the gravy. Adding liquid while stirring briskly keeps the starch dispersed, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, thickened gravy.

“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.

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes