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Roast Pig

A roasted pork dish simmered with mushrooms, parsley, mace, wine, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the flesh from the bones and skin.

  2. Cut into convenient pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the sliced mushrooms.

  3. Cook the mushrooms over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

  4. Stir in the flour. Continue to toss gently without burning.

  5. Add parsley, mace, salt, Cayenne pepper, and water. Boil gently until reduced by one third.

  6. Remove the parsley and mace.

  7. Add the meat and wine. Bring to a simmer.

  8. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, and add richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and mushroom juices into a smooth sauce body.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the sauce as they release their liquid.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolks and lemon juice. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the sauce boils. Keep the sauce at a bare simmer or just below, and stir constantly while adding them.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, mushroom, flour, parsley, pepper, wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, mushroom, flour, parsley, pepper, wine. 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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