Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
A Sucking Pig
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pig
Clean the pig.
Stuff the pig with bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.
Place the pig over the fire for a few minutes.
Brush the pig with salad oil.
Roast
Coat the pig thickly with flour, reapplying flour every 5 to 10 minutes.
Cook the pig for about 1.5 hours, depending on size.
Ten minutes before removing, cut off the head.
Wipe off the flour from the head.
Brush the head with salad oil.
Remove the pig.
Prepare the head and serve
Split the head.
Chop the tongue and brains.
In a saucepan, combine the chopped parts with stock and melted butter.
Mix the mixture with bread crumbs.
Split the pig down the back.
Place the split pig on a dish.
Serve with egg sauce and the other 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms a thick crust over the skin that browns and crisps during roasting.
- Salad oil
- Brushed on the skin to help it brown and crisp as it cooks.
- Bread crumbs
- Stuffed inside and mixed with the chopped head meats to add body and moisture.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the chopped head and tongue mixture.
The step that matters
Reapplying the flour. Flour coats the skin and absorbs moisture as it cooks, so letting the coating thin out can leave the skin pale and less crisp. Recoating it every few minutes keeps a thick layer that browns evenly.
“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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