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A whole pig stuffed with sage and bread-crumbs, then roasted on a spit over a brisk fire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Roasting

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Chop sage finely.

  2. Mix the sage with bread-crumbs, pepper, and salt.

  3. Stuff the mixture into the pig's belly.

  4. Sew up the pig's belly.

Roast

  1. Spit the pig and place it over a brisk fire.

  2. Dredge the pig with flour, but do not baste it.

  3. Within 15 minutes of being done, wipe off the flour.

  4. Rub the pig with butter using a cloth.

Serve

  1. Remove the head.

  2. Take out the brains, chop them, and mix with the pig's gravy and melted butter.

  3. Cut the pig down the back and belly without removing it from the spit.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + sagetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Sage + buttertop 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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Is the main body being roasted, so its size and fat set the cooking time.
Bread-crumbs
Absorb juices and fat in the stuffing, giving it a moist, soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat that browns the skin and gives a rich flavor when rubbed on.
Flour (in the method)
Forms a dry crust on the outside that helps the skin brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Wipe off the flour within 15 minutes of being done. Flour dredged on the skin browns and can turn dark or bitter if left on too long at the end of roasting. Timing the removal keeps the skin golden and crisp rather than scorched.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Sagethe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, butter. 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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