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Roast Pig

A whole pig roasted with a breadcrumb stuffing seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, celery, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Roast Pig

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Have the butcher dress the pig nicely.

  2. Rub the pig inside and out with coarse sea salt.

  3. Pick the stale bread fine and mix with 2 tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 1 teaspoon powdered sage.

  4. Chop the celery and onion, then mix with the bread crumbs.

  5. Add the melted butter and hot water to the mixture and stir well.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the pig in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), basting often.

  2. Serve with a red apple in its mouth and ribbons tied to its ears and tail.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Sage + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Is the main cooked meat, which the stuffing fills and the roasting cooks through.
Stale bread
Forms the body of the stuffing and absorbs the butter and water for a moist filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the stuffing taste rich and the skin brown during roasting.
Celery
Adds moisture and a fresh, savory aroma to the stuffing as it softens.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the stuffing as it cooks.

The step that matters

Basting the pig in the hot oven. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and helps the skin brown evenly, while the fat carries heat into the meat. Letting the surface dry out can leave the skin tough and pale.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, sage, celery, egg, 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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