Name: Fried Meats
Ingredients: pork strips; tomato sauce; fat for frying

Why it works: Pork and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,843 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Meats

Ingredients

pork strips
tomato sauce
fat for frying

Directions

Skewer the pork strips so they protrude equally on both sides.
Place the skewered pork in a clean, warm frying pan.
Fry slowly over the fire, allowing fat to render from the pork.
After five minutes, turn the slices, then turn again after ten minutes.
Heat the liver slowly for the first ten minutes to avoid toughness.
Fry the liver for about twenty-five minutes total.
Remove each piece with a fork, draining grease against the pan.
Serve on a hot platter with half a teaspoon of tomato sauce on each slice.

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.

Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,666 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).