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Roast Loin of Pork

A roasted pork loin seasoned with sage, onions, and sea salt, served with fried potatoes and apple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Loin of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and score the loin of pork, separating the bones.

  2. Make an incision in the upper part of the loin for stuffing and sew it up with twine.

  3. Pass a strong iron skewer through the loin lengthwise and tie it to a spit.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the pork for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. Dish it up and pour brown gravy underneath.

  3. Garnish with small fried potatoes and serve with apple sauce.

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

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

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Sage + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
The main cut, which cooks through and browns on the outside as it roasts.
Apple sauce
Its sweet tartness contrasts with the rich, savoury pork.

The step that matters

Roasting the pork loin. Pork loin is lean, so timing matters. Overcooking dries out the meat, while undercooking leaves it unsafe. Checking the thickest part with a thermometer is more reliable than relying only on the clock.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, onion, pepper, butter, potato, sauce. 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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