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To Roast a Sucking Pig

A whole pig roasted with a stuffing of mashed potatoes, onions, sage, and butter, served with a liver and heart gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 Sucking Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Make the stuffing by mixing hot mashed potatoes with butter, mashed onions, sage, salt, and pepper.

  2. Wash the pig in cold water.

  3. Cut off the feet close to the joints, leaving some skin to fold over the ends.

  4. Remove the liver and heart, reserving them with the feet for gravy.

  5. Truss the legs.

  6. Fill the body with stuffing.

  7. Sew or tie the pig up with buttered twine.

Roast and baste

  1. Rub the outside of the pig with lard to prevent blistering.

  2. Baste the pig well while roasting.

  3. Just before it's done, rub the pig with a feather dipped in olive oil.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Drain the gravy from the pan into a saucepan.

  2. Skim off the fat from the gravy.

  3. Mix flour with the finely chopped liver and heart. Add salt and pepper to the mixture.

  4. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Add caramel to the gravy.

  6. Serve the gravy in a tureen with the pig.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + sagetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Bulk out the stuffing, adding soft starch and moisture as it cooks inside the pig.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and twine coating.
Onions
Add sweetness and moisture to the stuffing as they cook down.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the back of a spoon.
Caramel
Darkens the gravy and adds a deeper, slightly sweet colour and flavour.
Lard
Fat on the skin that promotes even browning and helps prevent blistering.

The step that matters

Rub the pig with a feather dipped in olive oil just before it's done. Oil applied late adds sheen and a golden finish without the long cooking that would let it darken or burn. Applying it too early, or too heavily, can make the skin greasy and uneven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, walnut, butter, pepper, sage, olive, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, walnut, butter, pepper, sage, olive, 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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