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 ↓
Roast Pofk
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pork
Take a nice middle piece of young pork and separate the joints.
Crack the bones across the middle without breaking the skin.
Score the meat parallel with the ribs and wash it.
Place the pork on a spit with a little water in the bottom of the roaster.
Rub the pork with salt, sage, and cayenne pepper.
Do not flour or baste the pork while cooking to keep the skin crisp.
Make the gravy
Pour the gravy into a pan and skim off some fat.
Stir in a little flour mixed with cold water and add some water.
Let the gravy boil once, then serve in a gravy tureen.
Adjust seasoning with more pepper or salt if needed.
Serve
Serve with apple sauce.
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.
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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,527 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,115 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young pork
- Forms the main body of the dish, with its joints and skin the focus of the roast.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy when stirred into the fat and liquid.
- Sage
- Adds a savoury, aromatic herbal flavour to the pork.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds a sharp, warming heat that seasons the pork.
The step that matters
Do not flour or baste the pork while cooking. Basting adds moisture to the skin, which keeps it from drying and crisping. Flouring or wetting the surface during roasting prevents the skin from crisping properly.
Swap the sage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour):
- Jalapenofits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Sagethe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, 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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