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Cochon De Lait Roti

A roast suckling pig seasoned with herbs, spices, and butter, served hot from a spit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cochon De Lait Roti

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Fill a large pot with water and heat until warm.

  2. Soak the suckling pig in the water, supporting it by the head, and gently stir until the hair begins to fall off.

  3. Remove the pig from the water and vigorously rub it with a large towel to remove all hair.

  4. Clean the pig thoroughly, then empty it and tie the legs with a skewer.

  5. Stuff the cavity with a mixture of butter, finely chopped herbs, cloves, shallots, salt, pepper, mushrooms, and chopped liver with lard.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the pig on a spit over moderate heat.

  2. When the skin begins to yellow, baste it occasionally with olive oil to achieve a golden, crispy skin.

  3. Just before serving, make a small incision in the skin of the neck to maintain the crispiness.

  4. Serve very hot, directly from the spit, with maître d'hôtel sauce or remoulade on the side.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mushroom + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suckling pig
Forms the main meat; its skin becomes crisp and golden during roasting.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing as it cooks inside the cavity.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury depth to the stuffing.
Shallots
Add mild sweetness and aroma to the stuffing.
Lard
Adds fat that helps the meat stay moist and the skin brown.
Olive oil
Basting fat that promotes browning and a golden, crisp skin.

The step that matters

Basting and skin crisping on the spit. Moderate heat must dry and brown the skin without burning it. Occasional basting with fat helps browning and crispness, while the meat cooks through slowly. Watching the skin as it turns yellow lets the cook adjust before it darkens too far.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, shallot, mushroom, olive):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, shallot, mushroom, olive. 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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