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Roast Pig

A whole pig roasted with bread crumbs, sage, salt, pepper, and butter, served with a sherry‑lemon gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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 the pig

  1. Stuff the pig with dry bread crumbs seasoned with sage, salt, and pepper.

  2. Sew the pig up.

  3. Skewer the legs back to ensure crispiness.

  4. Dredge the pig with flour.

Roast

  1. Place the pig in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Baste frequently with melted butter.

  3. Rub the pig with a cloth wet with melted butter.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, serve the pig whole on a platter.

  2. Garnish the platter with parsley and celery tops.

  3. Remove some fat from the gravy.

  4. Thicken the rest of the gravy with a little flour.

  5. Add sherry wine and lemon juice to the gravy.

  6. Serve the gravy in a gravy boat.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Forms the main joint of meat, which cooks through and carries the flavour of the stuffing.
Dry bread crumbs
Absorb juices from the meat inside, keeping the stuffing moist and seasoned.
Flour
Dredging coat helps the skin brown and crisp in the oven.
Melted butter
Fat for basting adds moisture to the surface and promotes browning.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and depth to the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy.

The step that matters

Skewer the legs back. Pulling the legs back keeps the skin taut so it crisps evenly rather than sagging or cooking unevenly. Frequent basting keeps the surface from drying out before the skin browns.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, pepper, flour, butter, parsley, sherry. 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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