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Sucking Pig, Roast

A whole young pig under three weeks old, stuffed with onion forcemeat and roasted for serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Sucking Pig, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the onion forcemeat.

  2. Stuff the forcemeat inside the pig.

  3. Close the opening with a trussing needle and string.

  4. Brush the pig's surface with salad oil or warmed butter.

  5. Wrap the pig in several layers of greased paper.

  6. Tie the legs back.

Roast and baste

  1. Roast or bake the pig for 2½ to 3 hours.

  2. Baste the pig regularly.

  3. About 30 minutes before serving, remove the paper.

  4. Brush the pig with thick cream or salad oil to enhance color and crisp the skin.

Carve and serve

  1. Before serving, cut off the head.

  2. Split the pig down the center of the back.

  3. Place the halves on a dish with the head divided at each end.

  4. Serve with brown and apple sauces.

  5. Scald and dry the currants, then reheat them in the oven before serving hot.

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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sucking pig
Provides the main meat, whose tender flesh cooks through during the long roast.
Onion forcemeat
Stuffing that flavors the pig from inside and keeps the cavity moist as it cooks.
Salad oil or butter
Fat brushed on the surface that promotes browning and helps the skin crisp.
Thick cream (in the method)
Brushed on near the end to enhance color and encourage a crisp, golden skin.

The step that matters

Remove the paper about 30 minutes before serving. The paper keeps the skin pale and moist while the meat cooks through. Removing it late lets dry heat and fat brown and crisp the skin, so timing matters.

“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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