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A Pig Matelote

A stew of pig quarters with bacon, wine, eel, crawfish, and gravy, served with lemon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A Pig Matelote

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the pig into quarters and place in cold water.

  2. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with bacon slices and place the pig quarters on top.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, bay leaf, thyme, and onion, then add white wine.

  4. Layer more bacon on top, add water, and bring to a boil.

Cook

  1. When the pig is half cooked, add the eel pieces.

  2. Boil the crawfish, then remove the claws and shells.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Once the pig and eels are cooked, place the pig in a dish and arrange the pettitoes around it.

  2. Add the eels and crawfish on top.

  3. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid, then mix in the strong gravy and burnt butter.

  4. Pour the sauce over the dish and garnish with lemon and crawfish.

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. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Thyme + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,503 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Forms the main body of the dish, providing rich meat and fat that flavour the cooking liquid.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat that seasons the pig and the liquid as it cooks.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich pork and helps balance the sauce.
Eels
Contribute firm, rich flesh and fat that enrich the cooking liquid.
Crawfish
Add sweet, delicate shellfish flavour and a contrasting texture to the dish.
Strong gravy
Gives the sauce body, depth and savoury richness.

The step that matters

Skim the fat from the cooking liquid. Fat left in the liquid makes the sauce greasy and cloudy, so it should be removed before the gravy and burnt butter are stirred in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, white wine, butter, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, white wine, butter, lemon. 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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