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To Roast a Leg of Pork

A roasted leg of pork seasoned with sage, onion, breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, and egg yolk, finished with oil or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

To Roast a Leg of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Score the skin of the pork in narrow stripes, forming diamonds if desired, and rub in powdered sage.

  2. Lift the skin at the knuckle and stuff it with minced onion, sage, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and beaten egg yolk.

  3. Secure the stuffing with string or skewers.

  4. Make deep incisions in the large end of the leg and stuff the incisions firmly with the same mixture.

  5. Brush the skin with sweet oil to achieve a crisp, brown finish.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the leg of pork at a distance from the fire for 3 to 4 hours, brushing it regularly with sweet oil or fresh butter.

  2. Skim the fat from the gravy and thicken it with a little flour before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork leg
Provides the main meat, whose fat and connective tissue keep the roast moist during long cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat from the stuffing, giving it body and a softer, moister texture.
Beaten egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when sliced and roasted.
Minced onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens and cooks within the stuffing.
Flour
Thickens the defatted pan juices into a smooth gravy.
Sweet oil or fresh butter
Conducts heat to the skin and promotes browning and a crisp surface.

The step that matters

Brushing the skin with oil before roasting. Oil on dry skin conducts heat and helps it blister and brown evenly; without it the skin can stay pale and tough while the meat overcooks beneath.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, bread, pepper, egg, butter, 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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