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Salmis of Pork

A pork stew with onions, mushrooms, stock, flour, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Salmis of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the pork into pieces and season with salt and pepper.

  2. In a pan, melt butter and sauté chopped onions and mushrooms until soft.

  3. Add the pork and brown on all sides.

  4. Sprinkle flour over the meat and stir well.

Simmer and serve

  1. Pour in stock and add herbs, then simmer until the pork is tender.

  2. Serve hot with your choice of sides.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Pork
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps soften the onions and mushrooms.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the pan.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavor and moisture as they cook down.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the cooking liquid into a stew sauce.
Stock
Forms the simmering liquid that cooks the pork and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the pork. Searing the meat on all sides creates browned flavor through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or stirring too early makes the pork steam instead, leaving it pale and less flavorful.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, mushroom, 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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