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Baked Pork Chops

Baked pork chops topped with dill pickle slices and tomato soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 ↓

Baked Pork Chops

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Season the pork chops with salt, pepper, and sage if desired.

  3. Arrange the chops in a baking pan.

Bake

  1. Place a thick slice of dill pickle on each chop.

  2. Cover the chops with tomato soup.

  3. Bake until the soup is thick and the chops are cooked through.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Dill + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

  3. Dill + sagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together18 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Dill + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Provide the main protein, which cooks through in the oven.
Tomato soup
Forms a thick sauce over the chops as it bakes, adding moisture and flavor.
Dill pickles
Add a tangy, acidic flavor that cuts through the rich pork and sauce.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Basilfits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, dill, tomato, pepper. 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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