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Mock Roast Chicken

Pork chops coated in a breadcrumb, butter, and milk mixture, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Roast Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs, beaten egg, chopped onion, chopped celery, sage, salt, pepper, butter, and hot milk.

Assemble the chops

  1. Season the pork chops well and spread a thick layer of the dressing on top.

  2. Skewer or tie the chops firmly with cords and place them in a baking pan.

  3. Add the hot water to the pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours, basting frequently.

  2. Serve with brown 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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Celery + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Toasted bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the dressing and absorb the milk and butter to hold its body.
Egg
Binds the dressing so it holds together as it cooks.
Pork chops
Serve as the meat base that the dressing is layered over and baked with.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, helping it brown and taste savory.
Hot sweet milk
Moistens the bread crumbs so the dressing becomes soft and cohesive.

The step that matters

Tie the chops firmly before baking. Loose chops can open or shift in the oven, letting the dressing fall out and the meat cook unevenly. Firm tying keeps the dressing in place around the meat during the long bake.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, celery, sage, pepper, butter, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, celery, sage, pepper, butter, milk. 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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