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Pork, Loin Of, Savoury

A pork loin seasoned with sage, salt, mustard, pepper, and onion, wrapped in oiled paper and roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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, Loin Of, Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Score the skin of the pork in lines a quarter of an inch apart.

  2. Rub the pork thoroughly with the savoury powder made from sage, salt, mustard, pepper, and onion.

Roast and serve

  1. Wrap the joint in oiled paper and place it before a clear fire, basting liberally.

  2. Half an hour before serving, remove the paper and baste again until the crackling is browned.

  3. Serve on a hot dish with brown gravy and apple sauce.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Sage + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to tender meat inside a crisp skin.
Powdered sage
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour that penetrates the meat when rubbed on.
Dry mustard
Contributes a sharp, pungent note that balances the richness of the pork.
Chopped onion
Adds savoury aroma and sweetness as its flavour compounds carry into the meat.

The step that matters

Browning the crackling at the end. Crackling needs dry, hot skin to blister and brown; the paper and basting keep it moist early on, so removing the paper late and basting again is what lets the surface crisp. Too little heat or moisture left on the skin leaves it soft and pale.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, mustard, 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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