Name: Pork Cutlets
Ingredients: Pork cutlets; Bread crumbs; Sage, chopped fine; Onion, chopped fine; 1 egg yolk; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Lard for frying; Flour for gravy

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 Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Cut pork from the leg and remove the skin.
Pound the cutlets with a pestle.
Mix bread crumbs, chopped sage, chopped onion, and season with salt and pepper.
Dip cutlets in beaten egg yolk, then coat with the bread crumb mixture.
Fry in lard over medium heat until light brown, turning often.
After frying, sprinkle flour into the remaining gravy, bring to a boil, and pour over the cutlets.

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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Spinachfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, bread, sage, egg, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.