Name: Pork Cutlets.
Ingredients: remains of cold roast loin of pork; ½ cup of butter; 2 onions, chopped; 2 teaspoons of flour; 4 cups of gravy; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; 1 teaspoon of vinegar; 1 teaspoon of mustard

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 ↓

Pork Cutlets.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the pork into nice-sized circles and trim off most of the fat.

Make the sauce

In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the pork and chopped onions.
Fry until lightly browned.
Add the flour, gravy, pepper, salt, vinegar, and mustard.
Simmer gently for 5 to 7 minutes and serve.

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.

Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Fat for frying that carries flavor and helps the pork and onions brown.
Flour: Thickens the gravy so the sauce clings to the pork.
Gravy: Provides the liquid base and savory flavor of the sauce.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavor that defines the dish.
Onions: Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding depth to the sauce.

Swap the onion

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

Shallotfits better
Lettucefits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

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