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Pork Roasted

A pork loin stuffed with bread crumbs, onion, sage, pepper, and butter, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Pork Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pork

  1. Separate each joint of the loin with a chopper and make an incision in the thick part of the pork.

  2. Prepare the dressing by mixing the bread crumbs, onion, sage, pepper, salt, and butter until well combined.

  3. Press the dressing into the incision in the pork and sew the edges together.

  4. Butter a sheet of paper, wrap the loin in it, and secure with twine.

Roast and serve

  1. Bake in a dry baking pan at 400°F (200°C), basting constantly as the grease draws out.

  2. Roast thoroughly, allowing 20 minutes per pound plus an additional 20 minutes.

  3. Serve with apple sauce or apple fritters.

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. Butter + breadtop 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 loin
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into tender, juicy meat when roasted gently.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and onion juices in the dressing, keeping the stuffing moist rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the surface brown while the pork roasts.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the dressing as it softens during cooking.
Sage
Contributes a herbal, earthy aroma that complements the richness of pork.

The step that matters

Roast thoroughly with basting. Pork must be cooked through for safety, but overcooking dries lean meat. Basting replaces the fat that drains out, helping the surface brown and the interior stay moist during the long roast.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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