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To Roast a Fig

A method for roasting a small pig with a bread and sage stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast a Fig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Kill the pig in the morning if it is to be eaten for dinner.

  2. Make the stuffing by mixing grated bread, minced sage, chopped onion, egg, pepper, salt, and butter.

  3. Wash the pig in cold water.

  4. Cut off the feet, leaving the skin long to wrap around the ends of the legs.

  5. Fill the belly with the stuffing.

  6. Sew it up.

Roast

  1. Prepare a clear fire that is hotter at the ends than in the middle.

  2. Rub the pig with sallad oil or fresh butter before placing it over the fire.

  3. Baste the pig with oil or butter until it is done, which takes about an hour and a half for a small pig.

Serve

  1. Before serving, cut off the head.

  2. Split the pig down the middle.

  3. Remove the brains.

  4. Chop the brains with boiled sage leaves.

  5. Mix with veal or beef gravy.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 becomes tender and browned over the fire.
Grated bread
Absorbs juices and forms a soft, moist stuffing inside the belly.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the skin brown during basting.
Sage
Contributes a herbal aroma that flavours the stuffing and brains.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Basting the pig until done. Regular basting with oil or butter keeps the surface from drying out and helps it brown evenly. Heat that is too strong or uneven over the fire can scorch one side while the centre is still cooking through.

Swap the onion

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

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

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