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Loin of Pork

A roasted pork loin stuffed with sage and onion, served with a sauce and apple sauce or apricot jam, accompanied by Brussels sprouts or parsnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Loin of Pork

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pork

  1. Score the fat of the pork joint with a sharp knife.

  2. Rub butter or dripping into the scored fat and place in a baking tin with a little dripping.

Roast

  1. Baste constantly and cook slowly in a 350°F (175°C) oven for at least 1.5 hours.

  2. Half an hour before the pork is done, make sage and onion stuffing, roll into balls, and place in the baking tin.

  3. Turn and baste the stuffing often.

  4. About 10 minutes before serving, sprinkle flour over the joint and increase the heat to crisp the fat.

Serve

  1. Transfer the meat to a hot dish, arrange the stuffing around it, and carefully remove excess fat.

  2. Add flour, pepper, salt, lime juice, and hot water to the pan, stirring until thickened.

  3. Pour the sauce into a sauce boat and serve with apple sauce or apricot jam, alongside Brussels sprouts or parsnips.

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 + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 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. Sage + limetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together37 recipes

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

  4. Sage + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork loin
Slow cooking keeps the lean meat tender while the fat bastes and flavours it.
Butter or dripping
Fat coats the scored skin, promoting moisture and helping it crisp and brown.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy and helps the fat crisp and brown.
Sage and onion stuffing
Forms a savoury, aromatic side that absorbs juices from the roasting pan.
Lime juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the pan sauce.

The step that matters

Crisping the fat at the end. Raising the oven heat only for the final minutes lets the fat blister and brown without overcooking the meat. Too early or too long, the fat burns or the pork dries out.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, sage, onion, flour, pepper, lime):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, sage, onion, flour, pepper, lime. 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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