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Stuffing for Roast Pig

A savory bread crumb mixture seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, onion, and butter, used to fill a roast pig.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 ↓

Stuffing for Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, sage, and chopped onion.

  2. Rub the butter into the bread crumbs until well combined.

  3. Fill the body of the pig with the stuffing.

Prepare the pig

  1. Press the fore-feet forward and the hind-feet backward, then skewer them in place.

  2. Open the mouth and place a small block of wood between the teeth.

  3. Butter two sheets of paper and pin them around the ears.

  4. Sprinkle the pig with salt, rub it all over with soft butter, and dredge with flour.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the pig in a roasting pan and cook for at least 3.5 hours, basting every 15-20 minutes with butter or salad oil.

  2. Sprinkle lightly with salt and flour after each basting.

  3. Remove the paper from the ears during the last half hour of cooking.

  4. When ready to serve, remove the block from the mouth and insert a small ear of corn or a small lemon.

  5. Serve with apple sauce.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the stuffing and absorb the butter and seasoning juices.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and helps the skin brown while roasting.
Powdered sage
Adds a savoury, aromatic flavour to the stuffing.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Basting the pig during roasting. Regular basting with butter or oil keeps the surface moist and encourages even golden browning. Sprinkling flour after each basting helps build a crisp, browned crust. Skipping basting can leave the skin dry and pale.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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