Name: To Roast a Sucking-pig
Ingredients: sage; crumbs of bread; coarse sea salt; black pepper; sweet oil; good melted butter or gravy

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 ↓

To Roast a Sucking-pig

Ingredients

Directions

Stuff the belly of the pig with sage, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper, then sew it up.
Rub the skin with sweet oil.
Make a shallow cut around the neck to easily remove the head after roasting.
Cut the skin down the back from the neck to the tail, being careful not to cut too deep.
Roast the pig before a brisk fire until done.
Remove the pig from the fire and take off the head.
Split the pig down the back and belly, laying the two halves in a dish.
Chop the bread and sage finely, then mix with melted butter or gravy.

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).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sage + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,778 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).