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Roast Pig

A roasted whole pig stuffed with a breadcrumb and herb mixture, basted and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 642 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pig

  1. Rinse the pig with soda and water.

  2. Dry the pig inside and out.

  3. Prepare the dressing by mixing bread crumbs, chopped onion, sage, melted butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and beaten egg yolks.

  4. Moisten the mixture with soup stock.

  5. Stuff the mixture into the pig.

  6. Sew up the pig.

Roast

  1. Place the pig in a kneeling position in a dripping pan, securing the legs.

  2. Dredge the pig with flour.

  3. Pour a little hot salted water into the pan.

  4. Baste the pig with butter and water three times as it warms.

  5. Baste the pig with gravy from the pan.

  6. When the pig begins to smoke, rub it every ten minutes with a rag dipped in melted butter to prevent cracking.

  7. Roast in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for two hours.

Serve

  1. Transfer the pig to a large hot dish.

  2. Surround the pig with celery and blanched celery tops.

  3. Decorate the pig with a green wreath and a sprig of celery in its mouth.

  4. Skim and strain the gravy.

  5. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  6. Boil the gravy.

  7. Add lemon juice.

  8. Serve the gravy in a boat.

  9. Cut off the head.

  10. Split the pig down the back.

  11. Remove the hams and shoulders.

  12. Separate the ribs.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the dressing so it holds together when stuffed and roasted.
Bread crumbs
Crumbs soak up the stock and butter, giving the stuffing a moist, soft body.
Butter
Melted butter adds fat for richness and helps the skin brown during basting.
Soup stock
Stock moistens the dressing and adds savoury flavour as it cooks.
Lemon juice
Acidity brightens the gravy and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Rub the pig with buttered rag when it begins to smoke. Skin can crack as it dries and heats quickly; regular fat rubbing keeps the surface pliable and encourages even browning.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

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