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Pork Cutlets or Chops, Plain

Pork cutlets or chops grilled or broiled, seasoned with salt and pepper, served plain or with optional sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Cutlets or Chops, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cutlets from a loin of pork, trimming them neatly and removing excess fat.

  2. Preheat a grill or broiler.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the chops for 15 minutes, turning them three or four times until thoroughly cooked but not dry.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and white pepper before serving.

  3. Serve plain or with tomato sauce, sauce piquante, or pickled cucumbers as a garnish.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pork + cucumbertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together616 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Sauce + cucumbertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 chops themselves, so its fat and lean meat set the dish's richness and texture.

The step that matters

Broiling without drying the chops. Pork loses moisture as its proteins tighten with heat, so turning the chops several times over a 15-minute broil helps them cook through evenly while staying juicy rather than dry.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, white pepper, sauce, cucumber):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Lettucefits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, white pepper, sauce, cucumber. 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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