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A Sucking Pig, to Roast

A roasted pig stuffed with sage, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper, then baked until dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

A Sucking Pig, to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Scald the pig if not already done.

  2. Stuff the belly with sage, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Sew the belly closed.

  4. Skewer the legs back to ensure crispness.

Roast and finish

  1. Roast over a brisk fire until thoroughly dry.

  2. Rub the pig with butter using a dry cloth.

  3. Dredge flour over the pig and do not touch it again until serving.

  4. Carefully scrape off the flour with a blunt knife.

  5. Remove the head while roasting.

  6. Take out the brains.

  7. Mix the brains with the gravy.

  8. Cut the pig down the back and belly.

  9. Lay it in a dish.

  10. Garnish with the ears and jaws.

  11. Serve the whole pig if small, cutting off only the head for garnish.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sage + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Butter
Enriches the skin with fat, helping it brown and crisp during roasting.
Flour
Dredged over the skin to form a coating that crisps and browns as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and add body to the sage stuffing inside the belly.

The step that matters

Roast until thoroughly dry. Drying the skin well over steady heat lets it crisp rather than steam. Moisture left on the skin keeps it soft and pale, so the pig must be dried completely before the flour and butter are applied.

Swap the sage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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