Name: Roast Pig
Ingredients: 1 young pig (not over 6 weeks old); Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Bread crumbs; Butter; Powdered sage; Onion (small amount); Water; Parsley (for garnish)

Why it works: Sage and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Pig

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pig and wash it well.
Wrap the pig in a wet cloth to keep it white and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.
Make a dressing with bread crumbs, butter, powdered sage, a little onion, pepper, and salt.
Stuff the pig with the dressing and sew it up.
Bake the pig at 400°F (200°C) for 2.5 hours.
Add a little water and a small piece of butter to the pan for basting.
Baste frequently, rubbing the skin with butter to keep it soft.
Bend the legs under the pig for presentation.
Garnish the serving dish with parsley.
Skim the gravy, add flour, pepper, and salt, boil briefly, and serve in a gravy bowl.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,445 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the onion

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

Carrotfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, butter, sage, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.