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Sucking Pig

A whole pig stuffed with a dressing of onion, sage, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, butter, and eggs, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Sucking Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Scald and scrape the pig clean, then wipe it dry.

  2. Chop off the toes above the first joint and remove the entrails.

  3. Remove the brains, eyes, and jaws, leaving the skin of the head intact with cleaned ears.

Stuff and shape

  1. Make a dressing by mixing the onion, sage, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, butter, and eggs.

  2. Stuff the body with the dressing and stitch it up.

  3. Boil the heart in salted water, then stuff it into the head skin to maintain its shape.

  4. Position the pig on its feet with the head resting on the front feet and hind legs drawn out.

Roast

  1. Roast for three hours, basting constantly.

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

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

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sucking pig
Provides the meat and fat that cook down and crisp the skin during roasting.
Eggs
Bind the dressing so it holds together when stuffed and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and onion juices, giving the dressing body and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture in the dressing.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Basting constantly while roasting. Over a three-hour roast the skin can dry out and brown unevenly. Frequent basting with the pan juices keeps the surface moist, so the skin browns and crisps evenly rather than burning or toughening.

Swap the onion

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

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

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