Why it works: Sage and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Roast Pig
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pig
Cut off the pig's feet, clean the head and ears, and remove the tongue and eyes.
Wash the pig thoroughly and dry it.
Stuff and season
Mix bread crumbs, chopped onion, salt, pepper, sage, and enough butter to bind the mixture.
Rub the inside of the pig with salt, cayenne pepper, and sage, then fill it with the dressing and sew it up.
Rub the outside with salt, cayenne pepper, and sage.
Roast and serve
Place the pig on a spit before a clear fire.
Moisten the skin with melted butter using a sponge on a stick as it dries.
Roast for 3 to 4 hours.
Serve with haslet sauce and 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 + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb juices and form a moist, binding dressing inside the pig.
- Butter
- Binds the crumb dressing and moistens the skin, encouraging browning as it roasts.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic flavour and moisture to the stuffing.
- Dried sage
- Contributes a savoury, herbal aroma to the stuffing and the skin.
The step that matters
Keeping the skin moist over the fire. The skin dries and can scorch before the thick interior is cooked through. Brushing it with melted butter adds fat that promotes even browning and slows surface drying, which is why the step is repeated as the skin dries.
“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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