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Roast Fig

A whole pig roasted on a spit with a breadcrumb and onion dressing, seasoned with salt, pepper, marjoram, cayenne pepper, and sage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Roast Fig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Remove the feet, clean the head, ears, tongue, eyes, and throat of the pig.

  2. Wash and dry the pig thoroughly.

Make and fill the dressing

  1. Make a dressing with bread crumbs, chopped onion, salt, pepper, marjoram, and enough butter to bind the crumbs.

  2. Optionally, add spices and grated lemon peel to the dressing.

  3. Rub the inside of the pig with salt, cayenne pepper, and sage.

  4. Fill the pig with the dressing and sew it up.

  5. Rub the outside of the pig with salt, cayenne pepper, and sage.

Roast

  1. Place the pig on a spit before a clear fire.

  2. Moisten the skin with melted butter using a sponge tied to a stick as it dries.

  3. Roast the pig for 3 to 4 hours.

  4. If using boiled and mashed potatoes as a filling, add more butter if used.

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. Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

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

  2. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Forms the whole dish; its skin crisps and its meat cooks through during slow roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices to form a moist, cohesive stuffing.
Butter
Binds the crumbs and, brushed on the skin, promotes browning and a crisp finish.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the stuffing as it cooks.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a warm, floral herbal aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Keep the skin moist with butter while roasting. Basting the skin as it dries keeps it from scorching before the thick meat is cooked through, and the fat promotes even browning and crispness.

“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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