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Leg of Pork, Roast

A roasted leg of pork with sage and onion stuffing, served with gravy and apple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and apple work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 755 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Leg of Pork, Roast

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

  1. Remove the bones down to the knuckle bone and break them into smaller pieces.

  2. Simmer the bones to make gravy.

  3. Prepare the sage and onion stuffing and press it lightly inside the leg.

  4. Secure the opening of the leg.

  5. Score the skin in narrow strips and brush with salad oil.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Allow about 25 minutes of cooking time for each pound of meat.

  3. Serve the gravy and apple sauce in sauceboats.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Leg of pork
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender and juicy when roasted slowly.
Sage and onion stuffing
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and savory flavor to the meat as it cooks.
Salad oil
Brushed on the scored skin to help it brown and crisp in the oven.
Gravy
Made from simmered bones, it adds savory richness and moisture to the sliced meat.
Apple sauce
Its acidity and sweetness cut through the richness of the fatty pork.

The step that matters

Scoring and oiling the skin. Narrow scores let fat render and moisture escape so the skin can crisp, while oil promotes even browning. Skipping either can leave the skin tough and pale.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, onion, sauce. 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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