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Roast Loin of Pork

A roasted pork loin seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, baked slowly and basted with pan fat, served with sweet potatoes and apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Loin 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

  1. Select a loin of little pig and have it trimmed at the market.

  2. Wipe the pork and season it with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Roast

  1. Place the pork on a rack in a dripping pan and dredge it with flour.

  2. Bake the pork in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Baste the pork every 10 to 15 minutes with fat from the pan.

  4. Dredge the pork with flour twice during cooking for a rich brown crust.

Serve

  1. Serve the pork with glazed sweet potatoes and baked apples.

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. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

Flour
Dredging forms a coating that helps build a rich brown crust during roasting.
Fat (from the pan)
Basting with pan fat adds moisture and helps the surface brown and stay tender.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw moisture to the surface for a flavorful exterior.

The step that matters

Basting and flouring during the long roast. Pork loin dries out over several hours of baking. Regular basting with pan fat keeps the surface moist, while the flour dredges support browning. Skipping them risks a dry, pale roast.

“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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