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Pork Steaks

Pork steaks seasoned with pepper, salt, sage, and grilled, served with a sage and onion gravy.

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 ↓

Pork Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Cut pork steaks about ½ inch thick and remove the skin.

  2. Trim the steaks neatly and beat them.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and powdered sage or marjoram.

Cook and make gravy

  1. Broil over a clear fire until fully cooked, turning once.

  2. Check doneness by cutting into one; if red inside, return to the grill.

  3. For gravy, stew trimmings and any coarse pieces of pork in a little water with chopped onions and sage.

  4. Skim the gravy carefully and serve it in a boat alongside the steaks.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork steaks or chops
Provide the main meat, which cooks through over direct heat and gives the dish its body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the gravy as they soften during stewing.
Powdered sage or sweet marjoram
Adds a fragrant herbal aroma that complements the pork.

The step that matters

Checking doneness by cutting into one steak. Pork must be cooked fully through, and the cut shows whether the centre is still red. Returning an undercooked steak to the grill finishes the cooking safely, while cutting too early releases juices.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, sage):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, sage. 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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