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Roast Pig

A whole pig, seasoned and stuffed, roasted over an open fire or in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pig

  1. Have the pig carefully killed, dressed, and thoroughly washed.

  2. Trim the inside of the mouth and ears, cut out the tongue, and chop off the end of the snout.

  3. Rub the pig inside and out with a mixture of salt, black pepper, pounded sage, and red pepper.

Stuff and roast

  1. Make a rich stuffing with crumbled cornbread or loaf bread, seasoned with black and red pepper, sage, thyme, savory marjoram, minced onion, and plenty of fresh butter.

  2. Moisten the stuffing with stock, cream, or hot water.

  3. Stuff the pig and sew it up closely.

  4. Roast the pig in a tin roaster over an open fire or in a long pan in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Sage + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Is the main meat, which slow roasting cooks through while keeping it moist.
Cornbread or loaf bread
Forms the base of the stuffing, soaking up butter and stock to stay moist.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, carrying flavor and keeping it tender.
Stock, cream, or hot water
Moistens the stuffing so the bread softens and the filling stays juicy.
Minced onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness that deepens as the stuffing cooks.

The step that matters

Sew up the pig closely after stuffing. A tightly closed cavity keeps the stuffing moist and hot as the pig roasts, so the centre cooks evenly rather than drying out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sage, cornbread, butter, cream, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sage, cornbread, butter, cream, thyme, marjoram. 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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