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Sucking Pig, Roasted

Roasted suckling pig stuffed with onion forcemeat, basted with oil or butter, wrapped in paper, baked for 2‑3 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Sucking Pig, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Prepare the onion forcemeat.

  2. Stuff it inside the pig.

  3. Close the opening with a trussing needle and string.

  4. Brush the entire surface of the pig with salad oil or warmed butter.

  5. Wrap the pig in several layers of well-oiled or greased paper.

  6. Draw the legs back and tie into shape.

Roast and finish

  1. Roast or bake the pig for 2 to 3 hours, depending on its size, basting frequently.

  2. About 1 hour before serving, remove the paper.

  3. Brush the pig with thick cream or salad oil to improve color and crisp the surface.

Carve and serve

  1. Before serving, cut off the head.

  2. Split the pig down the center of the back.

  3. Place the two halves on a dish.

  4. Divide the head, placing half at each end.

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 + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sucking pig
Provides the main meat; its small size sets the roasting time.
Onion forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and savory flavor to the meat as it roasts.
Butter or salad oil
Coats the skin, promoting even browning and a crisp, golden surface.
Thick cream (in the method)
Brushed on near the end to enrich color and help the surface brown.

The step that matters

Removing the paper about 1 hour before serving. Paper shields the skin while the pig cooks slowly. Removing it late lets the surface dry and brown; too early and the skin stays pale and soft, too late and it may scorch.

“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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