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Roast Pig

A whole pig roasted on a spit, seasoned with spices and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the feet, clean the head and ears, and remove the tongue and eyes.

  2. Wash the pig thoroughly and dry it.

  3. Mix bread crumbs, chopped onion, salt, pepper, marjoram, and enough butter to bind the mixture.

  4. Rub the inside of the pig with salt, cayenne pepper, and powdered sage, then fill it with the dressing and sew it up.

  5. Rub the outside with salt, cayenne pepper, and sage.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the pig on a spit before a clear fire.

  2. Moisten the skin with melted butter using a sponge tied to a stick as it dries.

  3. Roast for 3 to 4 hours.

  4. Serve with haslet sauce and apple sauce.

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. Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

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

  2. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig
Forms the whole roast and provides the meat and skin that cook over the fire.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and juices to form a moist, loose stuffing inside the pig.
Butter
Binds the stuffing and, brushed on the skin, adds moisture and helps it brown.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Moisten the skin with melted butter as it dries. Skin left to dry over the fire can scorch and toughen before the meat is cooked through. Regular basting with fat keeps the surface moist and encourages even golden browning.

“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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