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Pork, Spare Rib Of, Baked

A large pork spare rib baked slowly, finished with sage and basting gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and sage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,527 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Pork, Spare Rib Of, Baked

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Flour the spare rib of pork well.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pork in the oven for 3.5 hours.

  2. Baste frequently with the gravy that comes from the meat.

  3. Just before serving, sprinkle chopped sage over the pork.

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

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

  2. Flour + sagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Pork and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,187 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pork spare rib
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow baking.
Flour
Coats the surface so it can brown and help form a flavourful crust.
Chopped sage
Adds a fresh, aromatic herb note that lifts the rich pork.

The step that matters

Basting with the gravy. Spooning the rendered juices back over the meat keeps the surface moist during long baking and builds colour and flavour as the liquid reduces. Basting too rarely lets the exterior dry out.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour. 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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