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Roast Pig

A whole pig roasted with a seasoned breadcrumb stuffing, basted in butter and water, served with gravy and garnished with parsley, celery, and apple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 642 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pig

  1. Thoroughly clean the pig inside and out, rinsing with salt, soda, and water, then with cold water.

  2. Dry the pig.

Make and stuff the dressing

  1. Prepare the dressing by mixing bread crumbs, chopped onion, powdered sage, melted butter, coarse sea salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Moisten the dressing with soup stock.

  3. Stuff the pig with the dressing.

  4. Sew the pig up.

  5. Place the pig in a kneeling posture.

  6. Dredge the pig with flour.

Roast and baste

  1. Pour a little hot salted water into the dripping pan.

  2. Baste the pig with butter and water three times as it warms.

  3. Baste the pig with gravy from the pan.

  4. Rub the pig every 20 minutes with a rag dipped in melted butter.

  5. Roast the pig in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with brown flour.

  2. Place the pig on a dish garnished with parsley and celery tops, a wreath around the neck, and an apple in the mouth.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Young pig
Is the main body that is stuffed and roasted, so its size sets the cooking time.
Egg yolks
Bind the dressing so the crumbs hold together when stuffed and roasted.
Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the dressing and soak up the stock and butter for a moist filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the skin brown as it is basted and rubbed.
Brown flour
Thickens the pan drippings into gravy.

The step that matters

Roast the pig at a steady moderate oven heat. Too high heat browns and dries the outside before the thick stuffed center cooks through, while low heat slows browning. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and golden.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, butter, pepper, nutmeg, egg, 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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