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Roasted Pig

Roasted pig prepared by scalding, singeing, roasting, and served with a liver‑sage sauce and optional dried currant sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roasted Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Scald the pig in boiling water.

  2. Scrape and clean the pig thoroughly.

  3. Singe the pig.

Roast

  1. Place the pig on a spit.

  2. Baste the pig with oil while roasting until it is a nice brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare the sauce by mixing the chopped liver, sage, shallot, thyme, parsley, cream, pepper, salt, butter, flour, and stock in a bowl.

Serve

  1. When the pig is done, split it in half.

  2. Garnish with the feet cut in two.

  3. Serve with clear gravy in a sauce boat.

  4. Offer a sauce made with dried currants on the side.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Is the main meat, which browns and cooks through over the spit.
Oil
Basting coats the skin, helping it turn a nice brown while roasting.
Liver
Chopped fine and mixed into the sauce, adding richness and depth of flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and stock.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Basting the pig while it roasts. Oil applied during roasting keeps the surface from drying out and helps the skin brown evenly. Basting too little can leave pale, dry patches, while the skin needs to be kept moist as it cooks.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, sage, thyme, parsley, cream, pepper, butter):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, sage, thyme, parsley, cream, pepper, 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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