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Pork, Leg Of, Roasted

A roasted pork leg seasoned with sage, onion, bread, pepper, salt, egg yolk, and sweet oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Pork, Leg Of, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Score the skin of the pork leg in narrow strips, about ¼ inch apart.

  3. Stuff the knuckle with minced sage, onion, grated bread, pepper, salt, and the egg yolk.

  4. Rub sweet oil on the skin using a paste brush or goose feather.

Roast

  1. Roast the pork leg for about 3 hours, ensuring it is not too close to the fire.

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. Sage + oniontop 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

Pork leg
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy during long, gentle roasting.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together inside the knuckle while cooking.
Grated bread
Absorbs juices and adds soft body to the stuffing, keeping it moist.
Sweet oil
Coats the skin to help it brown and crisp in the oven.

The step that matters

Scoring the skin. Shallow, evenly spaced cuts let fat render and the skin crisp, rather than bubbling unevenly or staying tough. Cuts that are too deep can dry the meat near the surface.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, bread, 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.

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