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To Roast a Sucking Pig

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

To Roast a Sucking Pig

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Kill the pig by sticking it above the breast bone, then plunge it into cold water.

  2. Rub the pig with beaten resin, then dip it into scalding water to remove hair.

  3. Wash the pig in warm and cold water, then cut off the feet at the first joint and remove the entrails.

  4. Prepare stuffing with grated bread, butter, minced onion, minced sage, pepper, and salt; place it inside the pig and sew it up.

  5. Dry the pig thoroughly, then brush it with beaten egg white using a feather.

  6. Roast the pig before a very hot fire for 1 to 2 hours, placing a basin underneath to catch the gravy.

  7. When done, cut off the head and split the body down the middle.

  8. Mix chopped brains with minced boiled sage and melted butter, adding the collected gravy.

  9. Serve the pig on a dish, positioning the shoulder next to the hind quarter.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sagetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sage, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

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