Name: Cochon De Lait Roti
Ingredients: 1 pig, 3 weeks old; 2 large onions, minced; 3 teaspoons chopped sage; 2 ounces butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 4 times the bulk of onions in bread crumbs; 1 egg

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 ↓

Cochon De Lait Roti

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Clean, skin, and wash the pig thoroughly.
Mix onions, sage, butter, pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and egg to make a dressing.
Fill the pig with the dressing.
Sew the pig up with strong thread.
Truss the front legs forward.
Truss the hind legs against the body.
Place a clean piece of wood between the jaws to keep them slightly open.
Rub the pig all over with butter, pepper, and salt.
Dredge the pig with flour.

Roast and serve

Place the pig in a pan with a little boiling water.
Cook the pig slowly in the oven at 300°F (150°C), basting frequently, for about 3 hours.
Remove the wood.
Replace the wood with a corn cob or a small red apple before serving.

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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Pig: Forms the main body of the dish, which cooks slowly to become tender and juicy.
Onions: Add moisture and savory sweetness to the stuffing as they soften during roasting.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches the skin and promotes gentle browning during roasting.
Bread crumbs: Absorb juices and onion moisture, giving the stuffing a soft, cohesive texture.
Egg: Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.

The step that matters

Cook the pig slowly and baste frequently. A low oven heat cooks a large, stuffed pig evenly without drying the outside before the centre is done. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps the skin brown gradually.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, butter, pepper, bread, egg. 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Cochon De Lait Roti