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A Loin of Pork

A roasted pork loin served with sage and onion sauce, apple sauce, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Loin of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the loin of pork with salad oil 2-3 hours before cooking.

  2. Score the crackling to prevent burning.

Roast

  1. Hang the pork by the middle, ensuring the ends face the fire, and cook slowly.

  2. Baste frequently during cooking.

  3. When half done, hang it by one end to cook evenly.

  4. Cook for nearly 2 hours until done.

Serve

  1. Serve with sage and onion sauce, apple sauce, and potatoes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Sage + potatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Main protein; slow, even cooking keeps the meat tender and juicy.
Salad oil
Coats the surface so the skin and meat brown evenly and the crackling crisps.
Sage leaves
Adds a savoury, herbal aroma that flavours the meat.

The step that matters

Turning the pork when half done. Meat hung from the middle cooks unevenly near the fire. Hanging it by one end when half done lets heat reach all sides, so the loin cooks evenly without drying at the ends.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

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