Why it works: Pork and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,581 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Pork, Roast Leg of
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and roast
Score the skin of the leg of pork by cutting through it at equal distances, about ¼ inch wide.
Roast the pork at a distance from the fire for 3 hours, basting it frequently.
Brown and serve
About 15 minutes before serving, move the pork closer to the fire to brown and crisp the skin.
Pour ¾ pint of brown gravy over the pork before serving.
Serve with Apple Sauce or Brown Chestnut Sauce.
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.
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Pork + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,581 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork leg
- Provides the meat that is roasted slowly until tender and juicy.
- Brown gravy
- Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the sliced pork at serving.
The step that matters
Moving the pork closer to the fire to crisp the skin. Skin only turns crisp when its surface dries and browns at high heat. Doing this too early, or for too long, can scorch the skin before the meat is done.
“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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