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To Boast Pork

A roasted leg of pork seasoned with sage and onions, served with brown gravy and apple or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and apple work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 755 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

To Boast Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Score the skin of the pork in narrow strips before roasting.

  2. Prepare a savory stuffing of sage and onions and insert it under the skin.

  3. Brush the skin with clarified butter or salad oil if the meat is not very fatty.

Roast

  1. Place the pork at a distance from the heat to ensure it heats through before the skin hardens.

  2. Baste the pork constantly while it roasts.

  3. Roast the leg of pork for 3 hours, loin for 2 to 2.5 hours, and spare-rib for 1.5 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with brown gravy and apple or tomato 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 + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 body of the dish, providing the meat that is roasted and served.
Pork skin
Scoring lets fat render and the skin crisp while the meat stays moist.
Clarified butter or salad oil
Conducts heat to the skin and promotes even browning and crispness.
Sage and onions
Form a savory stuffing that adds aroma and flavor inside the roast.
Brown gravy
Adds savory moisture and richness to each serving.

The step that matters

Heat the pork gradually at a distance from the heat. Placing the pork away from direct heat lets the interior warm through before the skin hardens. Searing the outside too early can leave the center underheated and the skin tough.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Applethe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sage, onion. 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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