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Saddle of Pork

A roasted pork saddle seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, and herbs, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Saddle of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Roast the saddle of pork with the rind on.

  3. Strip off the skin.

  4. Bone the meat.

  5. Fill with a mixture of chopped sage, a few bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and allspice.

  6. Roll tightly.

Coat and roast

  1. Wet it with yolks of eggs.

  2. Cover with bread crumbs, chopped sweet herbs, and chives.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Roast slowly, keeping it at a distance from the fire.

  5. Roast until golden brown, about 1 hour.

Serve

  1. When serving, remove the crackling and serve with tomato sauce.

  2. For a variation, simmer the best end of the joint until nearly cooked.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Tomato + chivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork saddle
Forms the main body of the roast, supplying meat and fat that keep it moist as it cooks.
Yolks of eggs
Bind the crumb coating to the meat and help it brown evenly.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the roast.
Allspice berries
Add warm, aromatic flavour to the stuffing inside the roast.

The step that matters

Roast slowly, away from the fire. Pork cooked too hot on the outside can burn before the centre is done. Slow, indirect heat cooks the meat through evenly while the coating browns gradually.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, tomato, sauce, pepper, egg, bread, chive):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, tomato, sauce, pepper, egg, bread, chive. 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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