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Roasted Pig

A whole pig roasted on a spit, served with a liver and herb sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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, then scrape and prepare it as usual.

  2. Once cleaned and singed, place the pig on a spit and baste it with oil.

Roast

  1. Cook until the pig is a nice brown color.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, mix the chopped liver with sage, shallot, thyme, parsley, cream, salt, pepper, butter, flour, and stock.

Serve

  1. When serving, split the pig in half and garnish with the feet cut in two.

  2. Serve the sauce in a sauce boat alongside the pig.

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

Liver
Gives the sauce a rich, savory depth and body as it is mixed in.
Cream
Adds moisture and a smooth, rich texture to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce, giving it body as it cooks with the liquids.
Stock
Provides the liquid base of the sauce and savory flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the sauce's flavor and texture.

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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