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Chine of Pork

A roasted or boiled pork back seasoned with salt and stuffed with pork filling, served with cauliflowers or greens.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,581 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Chine of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Salt the chine of pork for 60-70 hours before cooking.

  2. Score the skin lengthwise without cutting into the meat.

  3. Stuff the chine with pork stuffing.

Roast

  1. Roast the chine at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes per pound.

Brine and boil

  1. For boiling, soak the chine in brine for 9-10 days, turning daily.

  2. Cover the soaked chine with water in a saucepan and boil slowly, skimming regularly.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with small cauliflowers or greens.

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. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Apple + cauliflowertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Pork + cauliflowertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  4. Sauce + cauliflowertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,666 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

Pork chine
Forms the main joint, and its fat and connective tissue give the cooked meat its texture and moisture.
Coarse sea salt
Cures and seasons the meat over the long salting, drawing out moisture and firming the flesh.
Pork stuffing
Adds savoury flavour and moisture inside the joint as it cooks.
Apple sauce
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, salty pork.

The step that matters

Salting for 60-70 hours. Salt slowly moves into the meat, seasoning it evenly and firming the flesh. Cutting the salting short leaves the seasoning uneven and the texture less firm.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sauce, cauliflower. 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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