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Sucking Pig

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Sucking Pig

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut off the pig's feet at the first joint, leaving the skin intact.

  2. For the stuffing, chop the sage and parboiled onions finely, then mix with bread crumbs, butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Stuff the pig and sew the slit closed.

  4. Baste the pig first with brine, then with fresh butter or salad oil to achieve crisp crackling.

  5. Place a pig-iron or substitute in the center of the grate to prevent scorching.

  6. Truss the legs back to allow even roasting.

  7. For sauce, combine clear beef or veal gravy with a squeeze of lemon and optional stuffing.

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 + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, onion, bread, butter, pepper, beef, sauce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, onion, bread, butter, pepper, beef, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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