Skip to main content
Main

Forcemeat for Roast Pig

A seasoned forcemeat mixture for roast pig, made with onion, sage, breadcrumbs, butter, cayenne, salt, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Forcemeat for Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the onion(s) until tender.

  2. Chop the onion(s) very finely.

Make the forcemeat

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped onion(s), powdered sage, bread crumbs, and fresh butter.

  2. Season the mixture with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Bind the mixture together with the egg.

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

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and absorb the butter to give the forcemeat body.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist and tender as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the crumbs and butter together so the mixture holds its shape.
Onion
Adds savory flavour and moisture; parboiling softens it so it blends evenly.
Powdered sage
Contributes the characteristic aromatic, earthy flavour of the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Bind the mixture together with the egg.. The egg is the only binder, so it must be fully mixed through the crumbs and butter. Too little binding leaves the forcemeat crumbly, while uneven mixing gives pockets that set differently when cooked.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes