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Loin Roast of Pork

A pork loin roast seasoned with onion, flour, sage, salt, pepper, and cooked in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Loin Roast of Pork

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wipe the pork roast with a damp cloth to remove any foreign particles.

  2. Make several slits across the top of the roast and press thin slices of onion into them.

  3. Dust the top with flour, sage, salt, and pepper.

Roast

  1. Add a little boiling water to the pan.

  2. Roast uncovered in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 15 minutes.

  3. Then cover and roast for 30 minutes per pound.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  5. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it roasts.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory sweetness as it softens and flavors the meat.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps the top brown and form a crust.
Sage
Contributes an earthy, aromatic flavor to the outside of the roast.

The step that matters

Covering the roast after the initial hot roast. Roasting uncovered first browns the surface, then covering traps moisture so the interior cooks gently without drying out. Skipping the cover change can leave the outside dry before the center is done.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour, pepper, sage. 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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