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To Roast a Leg of Pork

A roasted leg of pork stuffed with sage, onion, breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, and egg yolk, finished with sweet oil or butter.

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 ↓

To Roast a Leg of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Score the skin of the leg of pork in narrow strips, forming diamonds if desired.

  2. Rub powdered sage into the scored skin.

  3. Lift the skin at the knuckle and stuff it with minced onion, sage, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and beaten egg yolk.

  4. Secure the skin with a buttered string or skewers.

  5. Make deep incisions in the meat and stuff them with the filling, pressing it in firmly.

Roast and finish

  1. Brush the skin with sweet oil or fresh butter to achieve a crisp, brown finish.

  2. Roast the leg of pork for 3 to 4 hours, basting regularly with sweet oil or fresh butter.

  3. Avoid basting with its own drippings to prevent tough skin.

  4. Skim the fat from the gravy and thicken it with a little flour.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

  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

Leg of pork
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy over the long roast.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and give the stuffing body so it holds together.
Beaten egg yolk
Binds the stuffing and adds richness to the filling.
Sweet oil or fresh butter
Carries heat to the skin, helping it turn crisp and brown.
Flour
Thickens the drippings into a smoother gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the skin from turning tough. The record advises against basting with the pork's own drippings, which can toughen the skin. Basting with oil or butter keeps the surface moist and helps it crisp and brown instead.

Swap the onion

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

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

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