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Roast Pig

A whole young pig roasted with a dressing, butter, and seasoning, served with gravy and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare dressing as for 'Dressing for Fowls,' adding half a finely chopped onion.

  2. Wash the pig inside and out.

  3. Rinse the pig with water mixed with baking soda.

  4. Wipe the pig dry.

  5. Salt the inside of the pig.

  6. Stuff the pig with the dressing.

  7. Sew the pig up.

  8. Place the pig in a kneeling position in a roasting pan.

  9. Tie the pig's legs.

Roast

  1. Pour a little hot salted water into the pan.

  2. Baste the pig with butter and water as it warms.

  3. When it begins to smoke, rub the skin with a rag dipped in melted butter to keep it crisp.

  4. Roast for 2 to 3 hours, basting occasionally.

Make the gravy

  1. For gravy, skim off excess grease.

  2. Stir in flour.

  3. Add water to desired consistency.

  4. Season with pepper.

  5. Let the gravy boil.

  6. Strain the gravy.

  7. Add wine if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve the pig on a large hot platter, garnished with parsley or celery tops, a green wreath around the neck, and a sprig of celery in its mouth.

  2. Cut off the head first.

  3. Split down the back.

  4. Remove the hams and shoulders.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Young pig
Is the whole meat being roasted, so its size and age set the cooking time.
Butter
Adds fat that bastes the skin, promoting browning and a crisp finish.
Flour
Thickens the pan drippings into a smooth gravy.
Baking soda
Raises the surface pH of the skin, which helps it brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Rubbing the skin with melted butter when it begins to smoke. Fat applied once the skin is hot helps it crisp rather than toughen. Adding it too early can burn the butter, and skipping it leaves the skin dull and leathery.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, wine, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, wine, parsley. 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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