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Roast Little Pig

A whole small pig roasted with a stuffing of onions, bread crumbs, sage, butter, pepper, salt, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Little Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stuff the pig with the dressing made from onions, bread crumbs, sage, butter, pepper, salt, and egg.

  2. Sew the pig closed with strong thread, trussing the fore legs forward and hind legs backward.

  3. Rub the pig with flour, pepper, and salt.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the pig before a very slow fire or in a cool oven at first.

  2. Baste the pig often while roasting.

  3. Cook for about three hours until done.

  4. Place a cob or potato in the mouth to keep it open before serving.

  5. Serve with apple sauce or tomato sauce.

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

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

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Is the main meat, which slow cooking turns tender and juicy.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and egg liquid, forming a moist, stuffing-like dressing.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as they soften during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the dressing brown and stay moist.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Sage
Contributes its characteristic herbal aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Roast slowly and baste often. Starting in a cool oven or very low heat lets the thick pig cook through before the skin over-browns. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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