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Baked Pig's Shoulder

A pork shoulder baked after boiling, coated with egg, breadcrumbs, onions, and served with apple sauce, corn balls, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Pig's Shoulder

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook

  1. Cook the pig's shoulder in salted boiling water for two hours with whole allspice and cloves.

  2. Remove the pig's shoulder from the water.

  3. Skin the pig's shoulder.

Bake

  1. Brush the top of the pig's shoulder with beaten egg.

  2. Sprinkle seasoned bread crumbs on the top and sides of the pig's shoulder.

  3. Add slices of onion to the pig's shoulder.

  4. Bake the pig's shoulder in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour or until done.

Serve

  1. Serve the pig's shoulder hot with apple sauce.

  2. Garnish the platter with corn balls and parsley.

  3. Slice the pig's shoulder cold for the next day's luncheon.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + corntop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together712 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Onion + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's shoulder
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long simmer and then bakes to a crust.
Beaten egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the surface so they stay in place during baking.
Seasoned bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the meat as it bakes.
Apple sauce
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savory pork.

The step that matters

Cook the shoulder in salted boiling water. Simmering the shoulder for a full two hours in salted water lets the connective tissue soften and the meat season evenly, so the later baking only needs to crisp the surface and finish the heating.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, clove, egg, bread, apple, sauce, corn):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, egg, bread, apple, sauce, corn. 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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