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Leg of Pork, in Imitation of Goose

A roasted leg of pork stuffed with goose stuffing, basted with butter and seasoned with pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and sage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Leg of Pork, in Imitation of Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the leg of pork.

  2. Remove the rind or score it in small diamonds.

  3. Stuff the knuckle and flap with goose stuffing.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the pork, basting with butter.

  2. Sprinkle with pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and powdered sage.

  3. Add ½ pint of good gravy to the dish.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork leg
Forms the main body of the roast, providing the bulk of the meat and its juices.
Goose stuffing
Fills the knuckle and flap, adding flavour and moisture to the meat as it cooks.
Butter
Basting adds fat to the surface, promoting browning and a richer, glossy finish.
Bread crumbs
Sprinkled on top, they form a crisp, golden crust during roasting.
Powdered sage
Adds an earthy, aromatic flavour that complements the pork and stuffing.

The step that matters

Score the rind in small diamonds. Scoring the rind lets fat render and the skin crisp evenly, while cutting too deep can dry out the meat beneath.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Sagethe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, pepper, bread. 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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