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Pork Chops and Tomato Gravy

Pork chops served with a tomato gravy made from hot water, chopped tomato, sage, pepper, salt, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper 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 Chops and Tomato Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chops

  1. Rub the pork chops with powdered sage.

  2. Cook the chops thoroughly in a frying pan.

  3. Place the cooked chops on a hot dish.

Make the gravy

  1. Add 1 cup of hot water and the chopped tomato to the pan.

  2. Stew for five minutes, then add pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Thicken the gravy with flour to the desired consistency.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the chops and serve hot with mashed potatoes.

  2. Strain the gravy before thickening if a smooth texture is preferred.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  4. Sage + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Main protein; cooking it through sets its firm, tender texture.
Large ripe tomato
Adds acidity, moisture and body to the gravy as it stews.
Flour
Starch thickens the hot liquid into a gravy with body.
Powdered sage
Adds an earthy, aromatic herb flavour to the pork.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with flour. Flour must be fully mixed into the hot liquid and simmered so its starch swells and thickens evenly; added unevenly, it forms lumps and a pasty texture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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