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Collared Pig

A whole boned pig stuffed with force-meat, ham, pickled cucumbers, bacon, fowl, and omelet, then stewed and pressed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Collared Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Prepare the pig by removing the bones.

  2. Season the inside of the pig with beaten spices.

  3. Layer the force-meat, ham, pickled cucumbers, bacon, fowl, and omelet alternately inside the pig.

Roll and stew

  1. Roll the pig up tightly and wrap it in a cloth, tying each end and sewing the middle.

  2. Place it in a stew-pan and cover with stock, then stew for 2.5 hours.

  3. Remove from the liquid, tighten the ties, and place between two boards with a weight to press it.

Serve

  1. Once cold, remove from the cloth, trim, and serve whole or sliced with chopped savory jelly around.

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. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Meat + cucumbertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Forms the outer shell that holds the layered filling together during stewing and pressing.
Force-meat
Provides a soft, moist body that binds the filling when it is sliced cold.
Fowl white meat
Adds lean, mild meat that contributes to the sliceable texture of the filling.
Egg whites and yolks in omelet
Set during cooking to add structure and a firm, sliceable layer within the filling.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that keeps the lean filling moist during the long stew.

The step that matters

Pressing the pig while it cools. Pressing under a weight while the stewed meat cools helps the layers fuse and set into a firm, even slice. Tightening the ties first keeps the roll compact.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, egg. 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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