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Leg of Pork, in Imitation of Goose

A roasted leg of pork stuffed with goose stuffing, seasoned with pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and sage, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Leg of Pork, in Imitation of Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Parboil the leg of pork.

  2. Remove the rind or score it in small diamonds.

  3. Stuff the knuckle and flap with goose stuffing.

Roast and season

  1. Roast the pork, basting with butter.

  2. Sprinkle with pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and powdered sage.

  3. Add ½ pint of good gravy to the dish.

  4. Alternatively, fry the stuffing in small balls and place around the dish.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

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

  5. Sage + livertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh leg of pork
Forms the main joint of meat, which is the body of the dish.
Goose stuffing
Fills the knuckle and flap, adding moisture and savoury flavour as the meat cooks.
Butter
Basting fat that promotes browning and a golden, crisp surface on the pork.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the joint.
Good gravy
Adds moisture and savoury richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Parboil the leg of pork. Parboiling partly cooks the joint before roasting, which helps the meat become tender and lets the rind crisp more evenly. Skipping or rushing it can leave the pork unevenly cooked.

Swap the sage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, pepper, bread, liver. 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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