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Roast Leg of Pork

A roasted pork leg served with apple sauce and onion gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Roast Leg of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Remove the shank bone from the leg of pork.

  2. Roast the pork steadily, avoiding placing it too close to the fire, for 2.5 hours.

  3. Baste the pork frequently to prevent burning.

Make the apple sauce

  1. Peel and quarter the apples, removing the cores, then slice thinly.

  2. In a quart saucepan, combine the apples, water, and sugar; gently boil for 10 minutes until pulpy.

  3. Mash the apple mixture until smooth and set aside.

Make the onion sauce

  1. Slice the onions thinly and add to a quart of boiling water with the mint leaves; boil until nearly tender.

  2. Strain the onions, press out excess water, and chop finely.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the chopped onions with stock and boil for 5 minutes.

  4. Mix in the bread crumbs, white pepper, and salt.

Serve

  1. Serve the pork with gravy and the two sauces in separate sauceboats.

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

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

  2. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

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

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 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 leg
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and browned as it roasts.
Apples
Cooked down to a pulp, they form a smooth, slightly sweet and tart sauce.
Onions
Boiled and chopped, they give the onion sauce its body and mild savory flavor.
Fresh bread crumbs
Stirred into the onion sauce, they thicken it slightly and add body.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the apple sauce and helps it cook to a soft, pulpy texture.

The step that matters

Roast the pork steadily and baste it. Too much heat close to the fire can scorch the outside before the thick joint cooks through. Steady heat and frequent basting keep the surface moist and prevent burning.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, apple, sugar, onion, mint, bread):

  1. Gingerfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, apple, sugar, onion, mint, bread. 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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