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Roast Pig

A whole pig stuffed with liver, breadcrumbs, onion, parsley, mashed potatoes, butter, egg, and spices, then roasted and served with apple or mango garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the pig thoroughly inside and out.

  2. Mix the chopped liver, bread crumbs, onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and mashed potatoes. Combine with butter and egg to make a paste.

Stuff and roast

  1. Stuff the mixture into the pig and sew it up.

  2. Place the pig in a baking pan with a little water and roast over a bright fire.

  3. Baste well with butter and rub with lard tied in a clean rag frequently.

Serve

  1. When done, lay the pig back up in a dish and place a red apple or pickled mango in its mouth.

  2. Make a dressing with some of the stuffing, wine, and drippings to serve with the roast.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Pig
Is the main roasted meat that the stuffing and drippings accompany.
Liver
Adds richness and savoury depth to the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the stuffing into a paste.
Potatoes
Add body and moisture to the stuffing, keeping it soft during roasting.
Egg
Binds the stuffing mixture together so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the skin brown as it bastes.

The step that matters

Basting and turning the pig over a bright fire. A whole pig roasts unevenly and its skin can scorch before the thick meat cooks through. Frequent basting with fat keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning, while a steady heat rather than a flare-up gives the interior time to cook.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, parsley, pepper, potato, butter, 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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