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Roast Pig

Do not use the pig the same day it is killed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the pig in cold water to tenderize it.

  2. Plunge the pig into scalding water to remove hair.

  3. Clean the pig with a coarse cloth and remove the hoofs, ears, and nose.

  4. Hang the pig by the hind legs, remove entrails, and wash with water and dissolved soda.

  5. Wrap the pig in a wet cloth and chill until the next morning.

  6. Prepare stuffing by mixing chopped liver, heart, haslets, mashed potatoes, butter, chopped hard-boiled eggs, parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt.

  7. Scald the inside of the pig, dry it, and rub with pepper and salt.

  8. Fill the pig with stuffing and sew it up.

  9. Bend the fore legs under the body and skewer the hind legs forward.

  10. Place the pig in a large baking pan and pour over 1 quart of boiling water.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, egg, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, egg, parsley, thyme, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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