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Roast Leg of Pork

Roast leg of pork with skin scored, stuffed with onions and sage, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Leg of Pork

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pork

  1. Wash the leg of pork and score the skin in narrow strips, about ¼ inch wide.

  2. Brush the skin with salad oil or ghee to make it crisper and browner.

  3. Cut a slit in the knuckle and loosen the skin, raising the flesh as far as possible.

  4. Prepare stuffing with minced onions, sage leaves, a sprinkle of salt, and pepper, and fill the cavity.

  5. Secure the stuffing with a small skewer if necessary.

  6. Rub the leg all over with ghee and salt, then place it in a baking pan on a rack.

Roast

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours, allowing 30 minutes for each pound of pork.

  2. Baste frequently to keep the crackling crisp.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of pork
Forms the main body of the roast, providing the meat that cooks through in the oven.
Salad oil or ghee
Fat on the skin that promotes crisping and browning during roasting.
Sage leaves
Adds an herbal aroma that infuses the stuffing and the meat.
Minced onions
Adds savory sweetness and moisture to the stuffing as it cooks inside the roast.

The step that matters

Scoring and drying the skin before roasting. Scoring the skin in strips lets fat render and the skin blister into crackling, and brushing it with fat helps it brown. Skin that is wet or unscored tends to stay soft and chewy instead of crisp.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, ghee, onion, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, ghee, onion, 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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