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To Fry Salt Pork

A dish of salt pork fried and then simmered in milk or water until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

To Fry Salt Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Soak the salt pork in cold water until freshened.

  2. Cut the pork into slices and place in a skillet.

  3. Pour cold water over the pork and bring to a boil.

  4. Remove the pork and discard the water.

Fry and thicken

  1. Dip the pork in flour.

  2. Fry until brown.

  3. Make a batter and dip the pork in it.

  4. Return the pork to the skillet and fry until nicely browned.

  5. In a bowl, mix a large spoonful of flour with 1 pint of rich milk (or water).

  6. Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook until thickened.

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 + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Provides the main meat and fat that flavours the dish and browns in the pan.
Flour
Coats the pork and forms a batter that browns and crisps during frying.
Rich milk (or water)
Combined with flour to make the liquid that thickens into a gravy in the skillet.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook until thickened. Flour must be mixed smoothly into the liquid first; otherwise it clumps. Cooking until thickened lets the starch swell and set the gravy.

“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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