Name: Pork Salad
Ingredients: 1 lean piece of pork; 1 pickle, finely chopped; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon butter (size of a walnut); 1 tablespoon sugar; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; 1 tablespoon prepared mustard; 1 tablespoon vinegar

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pork Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

Boil the lean piece of pork until cooked through.
Run the cooked pork through a meat grinder.

Make the salad

Finely chop the pickle and mix it with the ground pork.
In a bowl, combine the eggs, butter, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, and vinegar to make the dressing.
Pour the dressing over the meat mixture and stir to combine.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together849 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,039 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork: Forms the bulk of the salad, providing the main meaty texture once ground.
Eggs: Bind the dressing and add richness and body to the mixture.
Pickle: Adds acidity and a crisp, tangy bite that cuts through the meat.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavor that complements the pork and dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, egg, butter, sugar, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

Sesamefits better
Beansfits about as well
Chestnutfits about as well
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg, butter, sugar, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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.