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Rolled Neck of Pork

A roasted pork neck rolled and stuffed with sage, breadcrumbs, and onions, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 331 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rolled Neck of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Remove the bones from the neck of pork.

  2. Mix chopped sage, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and allspice.

  3. Spread the mixture inside the pork.

  4. Roll the pork tightly.

  5. Stuff the belly with a mixture of bread crumbs, chopped onion, sage, pepper, salt, butter, and eggs.

  6. Sew the stuffed belly closed.

Roast

  1. Rub the rolled pork with sweet oil.

  2. Roast the pork gently for about 1.5 hours.

Carve and serve

  1. Cut the head off the cooked pork.

  2. Slice the body in half.

  3. Combine the brains and stuffing with good gravy in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  4. Serve the pork with the sauce underneath, placing the head parts and ears decoratively on 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. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of pork
Forms the main body of the dish, and rolling it around the stuffing holds the filling in place.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing a soft, cohesive texture.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing, carrying flavour and moisture.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Roast the pork gently. Pork neck is a fatty, connective-tissue-rich cut. Gentle heat lets the fat render and collagen soften slowly, keeping the meat moist, while high heat would dry out the outside before the centre is tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, bread, pepper, allspice, egg, 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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