Name: Roast Pork
Ingredients: 5 pounds young pork; 2½ teaspoons coarse sea salt; 2 teaspoons sage; 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper; water; flour (for gravy)

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 ↓

Roast Pork

Ingredients

Directions

Take a nice middle piece of young pork and separate the joints.
Crack the bones across the middle without breaking the skin.
Score the pork parallel with the ribs and wash it.
Place the pork on a spit with a little water in the bottom of the roaster.
Rub the pork with salt, sage, and cayenne pepper.
Do not add flour or baste while cooking to keep the skin crisp.
Pour the gravy into a pan, skim off some fat, and stir in flour mixed with cold water.
Add some water to the gravy and let it boil once.
Serve the gravy in a tureen and adjust seasoning if necessary.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,115 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).