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Chine of Pork

A roasted pork neck served with a mushroom and vinegar gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chine of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Salt the chine for 3 days.

Cook

  1. Roast the chine.

  2. Fry the sliced onions in oil or butter until they take color.

  3. Pour off the oil, then add gravy sauce, chopped mushrooms, vinegar, and mustard.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil and serve it with the roasted chine.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chine
Salting firms the meat and seasons it deeply before roasting.
Sliced onions
Frying until colored builds sweetness and savory browned flavor for the gravy.
Gravy sauce
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the dish.
Chopped mushrooms
Add savory, earthy depth and body to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the rich pork and gravy.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a boil. Boiling the gravy with vinegar and mustard needs attention, since heat can sharpen the acidity and mustard can turn bitter if overcooked. Bringing it just to a boil keeps the flavors balanced.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, sauce, mushroom, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sauce, mushroom, vinegar, mustard. 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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