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Fillet of Pork

A pork fillet is stuffed with a breadcrumb and herb mixture and roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Fillet of Pork

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

  1. Cut a fillet from a leg of fresh pork and remove the bone.

  2. Mix bread crumbs, butter, marjoram or tarragon, sage, pepper, and salt to make the stuffing.

  3. Stuff the mixture into the hole where the bone was removed.

  4. Score the skin of the pork with close circles, about ½ inch apart, and rub in powdered sage.

Roast

  1. Roast the pork at 400°F (200°C) for the first hour away from the fire to heat it through.

  2. Then move it closer to the fire to roast for 2 to 4 hours, basting with sweet oil or lard.

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. Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

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

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

  5. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh pork fillet
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the stuffing while it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices in the stuffing, keeping the filling moist and soft.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, carrying the herb flavour through the filling.
Sweet oil or lard
Basting fat that promotes browning and helps keep the surface from drying out.

The step that matters

Roasting the pork in two stages. Starting away from the fire heats the centre through gently, and moving closer later browns the outside. Rushing the second stage can scorch the skin before the inside is cooked.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Marjoramthe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

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