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Leg of Pork a LA Boisseau

Roasted leg of pork served with a cream sauce made from the pan drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Leg of Pork a LA Boisseau

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and sear

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the leg of pork with salt and pepper.

  3. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat and add the chopped onion.

  4. Sear the pork leg until browned on all sides.

Roast and rest

  1. Transfer the pork to a roasting pan and add Worcestershire sauce.

  2. Roast in the oven until fully cooked, about 1.5 to 2 hours.

  3. Remove the pork and let it rest before slicing.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In the same skillet, add flour to the drippings to make a roux.

  2. Gradually stir in cream to create a sauce.

  3. Serve the sliced pork with the sauce drizzled on top.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the drippings into a roux that gives the sauce body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.
Butter
Carries the onion and adds fat for browning in the skillet.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the pork and its drippings.

The step that matters

Let the pork rest before slicing. Resting lets juices redistribute through the meat, so slices stay moister when cut rather than running out onto the board.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sauce, pepper, butter, flour, cream. 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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