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Rolled Neck of Pork

A pork neck rolled and stuffed with sage, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and allspice, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 331 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rolled Neck of Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a forcemeat by mixing chopped sage, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and allspice berries.

  2. Spread the forcemeat inside the neck of pork and roll it tightly.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the rolled pork at a distance from the fire and roast it slowly.

  2. Cook until done, then slice and serve.

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. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of pork
Forms the main cut that is rolled around the stuffing and cooked through.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the forcemeat so it holds together inside the roll.
Chopped sage
Adds a savoury, aromatic herb flavour to the forcemeat.
Allspice berries
Add warm, aromatic spice notes to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Roasting slowly at a distance from the fire. Gentle, indirect heat cooks the thick rolled joint through without drying or burning the outside before the centre is done. Rolling the meat tightly also helps it cook evenly.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, bread, 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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