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 ↓
To Roast a Sucking-pig
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pig
Stuff the belly of the pig with sage, white bread, salt, pepper, and onion, then sew it up.
Skewer the legs back to ensure the underpart crisps.
Place the pig by a brisk fire until thoroughly dry.
Coat and cook
Rub the pig all over with butter using a dry cloth.
Dredge flour over the pig, then do not touch it again until serving.
Carefully scrape off the flour with a blunt knife or coarse towel.
Rub the pig with a buttered cloth and remove the head while cooking.
Take out the brains and mix them with the gravy or form them into balls with bread crumbs and egg.
Carve and serve
Cut the pig down the back and belly, lay it in a dish, and discard the onion.
Chop the sage and bread finely, then mix with melted butter.
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.
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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Sucking pig
- Is the whole dish, so its size and dryness set the cooking time and texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the skin brown and turn golden.
- Flour
- Dusted over the dried skin, it helps form a crisp, browned crust.
- White bread
- Soaks up juices and fat in the stuffing, giving it a soft, moist texture.
- Sage
- Adds a herbal, aromatic flavour that suits rich pork.
The step that matters
Dry the pig thoroughly before coating it. Surface moisture steams the skin instead of letting it crisp. Drying by the fire first lets the butter and flour brown and crisp the skin evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, bread, pepper, butter, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sage, bread, pepper, butter, flour. 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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