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Saddle of Pork

A roasted pork saddle served with tomato sauce, coated in egg yolk and breadcrumbs, seasoned with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 ↓

Saddle of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut the saddle of pork like a saddle of mutton and roast it with the rind on.

Make the coating

  1. For an alternative, simmer the best end of the joint until nearly cooked.

  2. Strip off the skin, wet it with egg yolks, and coat with breadcrumbs, chopped sweet herbs, and chives seasoned with pepper and salt.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast for about 1 hour until browned.

  2. When ready to serve, remove the crackling and serve with tomato sauce.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Chive + sagetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Tomato + chivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together538 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

Saddle of pork
Is the main cut of meat that is roasted and carved into the dish.
Yolks of eggs
Wet the skin so the breadcrumb coating adheres and browns evenly.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the meat.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and sweetness to balance the rich roasted pork.
Sage
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the stuffing inside the rolled meat.

The step that matters

Roast slowly, keeping it at a distance from the fire. Gentle, indirect heat cooks the thick joint through before the outside burns. Fierce heat close to the source scorches the surface while the centre stays underdone, so the meat needs steady, moderate roasting.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, tomato, sauce, egg, bread, chive, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, tomato, sauce, egg, bread, chive, pepper. 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.

More pork saddle recipes

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