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Roast Sucking-fig

A whole pig roasted with butter or oil, served with gravy and optional sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,918 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Roast Sucking-fig

Ingredients

Directions

Roast

  1. Rub the pig well with butter or salad oil while roasting.

  2. Prevent the crackling from blistering or burning.

  3. When half done, hang a flat iron in front to avoid scorching.

Prepare and stuff

  1. Cut off the head before removing it from the heat.

  2. Split the body down the middle.

  3. Chop the brains and mix them with the stuffing, adding gravy and lemon juice.

  4. Place the pig back to back in the dish with the head halves and ears at each end.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with some gravy on the dish and the rest in a tureen.

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. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Pig
Forms the whole dish; roasting renders its fat and cooks the meat through.
Butter or salad oil
Coats the skin during roasting, promoting even browning and a crisp crackling.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the stuffing and the serving sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the meat and gravy.

The step that matters

Shielding the crackling when half done. Intense direct heat can scorch the skin before the meat is cooked through. Holding a flat iron in front shields the crackling, slowing browning so it crisps without burning.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, lemon, sauce, currant):

  1. Red currantfits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, sauce, currant. 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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