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Roasted Spare Rib

Roasted spare ribs seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, baked with butter and sage, served with apple sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 ↓

Roasted Spare Rib

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wipe the meat.

  2. Sprinkle both sides lightly with salt, pepper, and flour.

  3. Place the ribs in a baking pan.

  4. Pour enough boiling water to cover the bottom.

  5. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Roast

  1. Cook the spare ribs for 15 minutes.

  2. Baste with a mixture of 1 cup boiling water, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and ½ teaspoon salt.

  3. Continue cooking more slowly, allowing 20 minutes for each pound of meat. Baste frequently.

  4. Sprinkle a small amount of powdered sage leaves over the roast when almost done.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat.

  2. Use the pan drippings to make brown sauce.

  3. Serve with hot 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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Spare ribs
The main cut; its fat and connective tissue render and keep the meat moist as it roasts.
Flour
Dusted on the surface, it helps the meat brown and gives the pan drippings body for the sauce.
Melted butter
Basting fat that carries flavor and promotes browning on the surface of the ribs.
Black pepper
Adds sharp aroma and mild heat that seasons the meat's surface.

The step that matters

Continue cooking more slowly and baste frequently. Lower heat after the initial 15 minutes lets the connective tissue soften without drying the meat, while basting keeps the surface moist and evenly browned.

Swap the sage

The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, butter, apple, sauce):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, butter, apple, 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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