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Pork, Leg Of, Roasted

Roasted leg of pork with onion forcemeat, salad oil, gravy, apple sauce, and basting dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork, Leg Of, Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove bones down to the knuckle bone and break them into smaller pieces.

  2. Simmer bones to make gravy.

  3. Prepare onion forcemeat and press it lightly inside the leg, securing the opening.

  4. Score skin in narrow strips and brush with salad oil.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast leg over a clear fire or bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C). Allow 25 minutes per pound of meat.

  2. Serve gravy and apple sauce in sauceboats.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Onion + appletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pork + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

Leg of pork
Forms the main body of the roast, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
Onion forcemeat
Stuffing that flavours the meat from inside and moistens it as it cooks.
Salad oil
Brushed on the scored skin to help it brown and crisp in the oven.
Gravy
Made from the simmered bones, it adds savoury moisture to the sliced meat.

The step that matters

Score skin in narrow strips and brush with salad oil. Thin scoring lets fat render and moisture escape so the skin crisps rather than staying tough. Oil on the surface promotes browning, which needs dry, well-exposed skin to develop.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, sauce. 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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