Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Pork, Roast Leg of
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Score the skin of the pork leg in narrow strips, about ½ inch apart.
Cut a slit in the knuckle, loosen the skin, and fill it with sage and onion stuffing.
Brush the joint with a little salad oil to make the crackling crisper.
Roast and serve
Roast the pork over a bright, clear fire, not too close to avoid blistering the skin.
Baste well and serve with gravy made in the dripping pan and a tureen of apple 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 + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,527 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork leg
- Forms the main body of the joint, which cooks through slowly and carries the flavour of the dish.
- Salad oil
- Brushed on the skin to help the crackling crisp and brown during roasting.
- Sage and onion stuffing
- Fills the slit in the knuckle, adding aroma and flavour to the meat as it roasts.
The step that matters
Roasting the pork not too close to the fire. Intense direct heat blisters the skin before the meat cooks through. A bright, clear fire set at a moderate distance lets the joint cook evenly while the skin crisps.
Swap the sage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Cuminfits about as well
- Sagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion. 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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