Name: Leg of Pork, to Roast
Ingredients: 1 small leg of young pork; 2 tablespoons chopped sage; 2 tablespoons chopped onion; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

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 ↓

Leg of Pork, to Roast

Ingredients

1 small leg of young pork
2 tablespoons chopped sage
2 tablespoons chopped onion
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cut a slit in the knuckle of the pork leg.
Fill the slit with chopped sage, onion, pepper, and salt.

Roast and serve

Roast the pork until half done.
Score the skin in slices, being careful not to cut deeper than the outer rind.
Serve with 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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork leg: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it roasts.
Sage: Adds a savoury, herbal aroma that flavours the meat from within.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and moisture to the filling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Score the skin without cutting deeper than the outer rind. Cutting into the fat layer beneath the rind lets juices escape and dries the meat. Shallow scoring keeps moisture in and lets the rind crisp evenly.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Carrotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, pepper. 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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Roast Pork82 recipes

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Leg of Pork, to Roast