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 ↓
Sucking-pig
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Mix bread crumbs, onion, sage, egg, butter, pepper, and salt in a bowl.
Stuff the mixture into the pig's belly and sew it up with needle and thread.
Roast and carve
Roast the pig for 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours, or longer if older.
After roasting, cut off the head and leave the body in the dripping pan.
Divide the head in half and remove the brains for the sauce.
Make the sauce and serve
Chop the brains finely and mix with good stock or gravy from the pan.
Serve the pig with the sauce and additional gravy.
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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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sucking pig
- Is the main cut of meat, whose fat and skin cook down during roasting.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the butter and juices in the stuffing, keeping it moist rather than dense.
- Egg
- Binds the stuffing so it holds together when sliced or served.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the stuffing.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens inside the stuffing.
The step that matters
Roast the pig for the full time. Pork that is undercooked is unsafe, while overlong roasting dries the meat. Thick, larger pigs need the longer end of the range, so checking the internal temperature near the thickest part of the meat helps confirm doneness.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sage, egg, butter, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, egg, butter, 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.
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