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Barbecued Pig

A whole pig roasted with butter, salt water, olive oil, vinegar, catsup, and herbs, then garnished with parsley and fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Barbecued Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pig

  1. Soak the pig in cold water until ready to use.

  2. Wipe it dry inside and out.

  3. Rub the pig all over with melted butter.

  4. Mix bread crumbs, suet, chopped parsley, powdered sage, and salt.

  5. Dredge the pig lightly with flour, salt, and pepper.

Roast and baste

  1. Place the pig in the oven with hot salt water.

  2. Baste with water.

  3. Baste with melted butter until there is enough dripping in the pan.

  4. When half done, brush the pig with olive oil (or butter), pepper, and vinegar.

  5. Baste every few minutes.

  6. When thoroughly cooked, add catsup and a piece of butter if the pig is not fatty.

  7. Baste with this mixture and let it dry.

Serve

  1. Garnish the dish with parsley.

  2. Serve with apple sauce.

  3. Place an apple or orange in the pig's mouth when ready to 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. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whole pig
Is the main cut of meat, cooked whole and carved for serving.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the skin brown and stay moist during roasting.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the basting mixture and the rich meat.
Catsup
Adds sweetness and tomato acidity, helping the final glaze brown on the surface.
Bread crumbs
Absorb fat and juices in the stuffing mixture, giving it body and a softer texture.
Suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.

The step that matters

Baste with melted butter until there is enough dripping in the pan. Basting keeps the surface moist and carries fat over the meat, so the skin browns evenly. Without enough drippings the surface can dry out and scorch before the pig is cooked through.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, olive, vinegar, bread, parsley, flour, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, olive, vinegar, bread, parsley, flour, 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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