Skip to main content
Main

Roast Pig

A whole pig stuffed with a breadcrumb and sage mixture, then roasted with butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

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 stuffing

  1. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, onion, sage, melted butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Moisten the mixture with warm water or milk, then beat in the eggs.

Stuff and prepare the pig

  1. Stuff the pig with the mixture, sewing it up and binding the fore feet backward and hind feet forward.

  2. Skewer the pig into the proper position, dry it well, and dredge with flour.

Roast

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the pig in a roasting pan with a little hot, slightly salted water.

  3. Baste with butter and water three times during roasting.

  4. When the pig begins to steam, rub it with a cloth dipped in melted butter every five minutes.

  5. Roast for about 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours, or longer if needed.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape while roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Melted butter
Adds richness and helps the skin brown and crisp as it roasts.
Powdered sage
Contributes a savory, aromatic flavor to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Rubbing the skin with butter every five minutes once the pig steams. Fat keeps the surface from drying out and encourages even browning, so the skin needs regular basting to stay moist and golden rather than tough or pale.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More roast pig recipes

Stuffed 3 See all 115 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes