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A Very Nice Entree From Cold Roast Pig

A dish of cold roast pig pieces simmered with mushrooms, wine, and a sauce of butter, flour, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A Very Nice Entree From Cold Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the flesh from the bones and skin of the cold roast pig.

  2. Cut the flesh into convenient pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Stir in the flour and continue to toss gently without burning.

  4. Add the parsley, mace, salt, Cayenne pepper, and water.

  5. Boil gently until reduced by one third.

  6. Remove the parsley and mace.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the meat and wine and bring to a simmer.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and lemon juice.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 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

Cold roast pig meat
Provides the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it warms in the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
All-purpose flour
Cooks with the butter to form a roux that thickens the liquid.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and soft texture, releasing moisture into the sauce as they cook.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolks and lemon juice. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can curdle if the sauce boils after they are added. Keep the heat low and stir constantly, so the sauce becomes smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, mushroom, flour, parsley, pepper, wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, mushroom, flour, parsley, pepper, wine. 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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