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Loin of Fresh Pork, Roasted in the Oven

A pork loin seasoned with salt, sage, and butter or lard, then roasted until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and sage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,527 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Loin of Fresh Pork, Roasted in the Oven

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the pork generously with fine salt and let it sit for 1-2 hours.

  2. Wipe the meat, tie it with kitchen twine, and place it in a roasting pan.

  3. Top the pork with blades of sage and baste with a little butter or hogs lard.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours, turning occasionally.

  2. Ensure the pork is well cooked before serving with gravy or your choice of 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. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Butter + sagetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Forms the main body of the dish and carries most of the flavour and texture.
Fine salt
Seasons the meat deeply and helps it hold moisture during the resting period.
Butter or hogs lard
Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich, savoury surface on the roast.
Blades of sage
Contributes aroma that infuses the pork's surface as it roasts.

The step that matters

Ensure the pork is well cooked before serving. Pork loin is lean and can turn dry if overcooked, yet it must reach a safe internal temperature. Checking doneness with a thermometer, rather than relying on time alone, helps balance safety and juiciness.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Sagethe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter. 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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