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Baked Pig

A whole pig baked, trussed, and anointed with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Baked Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Prepare the pig exactly as for roasting; truss, and place it in the dish in which it is to be sent to the oven, and anoint it thickly in every part with egg whites that have been slightly beaten; it will require no basting, nor further attention of any kind, and will be well crisped by this process.

  2. Take the shoulders of a cold roast pig, remove the skin, and trim them into good form.

  3. Dip the shoulders into clarified butter or very pure salad oil, then into fine crumbs highly seasoned with cayenne and mixed with about a half-teaspoonful of salt.

  4. Broil the shoulders over a clear brisk fire until heated through and equally browned.

  5. Serve with tomato sauce or sauce Robert, or with curried crumbs and a currie-sauce, or with savoury herbs, eschalots, bread-crumbs, and brown eschalot sauce.

Make the blanquette

  1. Raise the flesh from the bones of a cold roast pig, free it from the crisp outer skin or crackling, and cut it into small slices.

  2. Dissolve a bit of butter the size of an egg, and throw in a handful of button-mushrooms, cleaned and sliced; shake over the fire for three or four minutes.

  3. Stir in a dessert spoonful of flour and continue to shake or toss gently, but do not allow them to brown.

  4. Add a small bunch of parsley, a bay leaf, a middling-sized blade of mace, some salt, a small quantity of cayenne or white pepper, half a pint of good veal or beef broth, and from two to three glasses of light white wine.

  5. Let these boil gently until reduced nearly one third; take out the parsley and mace, lay in the meat, and bring it slowly to the point of simmering.

  6. Stir in the beaten yolks of three fresh eggs and the strained juice of half a lemon.

  7. Serve the blanquette very hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

296Calories
13 gProtein
23 gFat
5 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Eggs1 large egg (50g)78
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  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

Egg whites
Form a crisp, browned coating on the pig during roasting.
Button-mushrooms
Add savoury flavour and a tender, moist texture to the sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Lightly thickens the mushroom and broth mixture into a sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma as it reduces into the sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce when stirred in gently.
Veal broth
Provides the liquid base and savoury body of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the sauce boils after they go in, they can curdle and turn grainy. Keep it hot but below a simmer.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, parsley, veal, white wine, egg, butter, mace):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, parsley, veal, white wine, egg, butter, mace. 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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