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Roast Pig

A whole pig roasted with potato stuffing, butter, herbs, and served with apple sauce or fried apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 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. Wash the pig well and stuff it with the potato stuffing.

  2. To make the stuffing, mix mashed potatoes, softened butter, chopped onion, pepper, salt, and sage.

  3. Sew the pig after stuffing it.

  4. Skewer the forelegs forward and the hind legs backward.

Roast

  1. Rub the pig with softened butter and sprinkle with flour, coarse sea salt, and pepper.

  2. Place the pig in a 400°F (200°C) oven with a little water in the pan.

  3. Baste often with melted butter to soften the skin.

  4. Bake for about 3 hours or until tender when tested with a fork.

Serve

  1. Arrange the pig on a platter in a bed of parsley with a slice of lemon in its mouth.

  2. Serve with apple sauce or fried apples.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Is the main cut of meat, cooked whole until tender.
Mashed potato
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and body to the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and basting helps soften and brown the skin.
Chopped onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the stuffing.
Sage
Adds an aromatic, herbal flavor to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Baste often with melted butter. Regular basting keeps the skin from drying out and helps it soften and brown as the fat coats the surface during the long roast.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, pepper, sage, flour, parsley, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, sage, flour, parsley, lemon. 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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