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Russian Polony

A preserved sausage made from smoked ham, beef, ox tongues, bacon, spices, and seasonings, cured and smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Russian Polony

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meats

  1. Peel the boiled ox tongues and discard the roots and tips.

  2. Cut the meats into dice.

  3. Pound the diced meats separately into smooth pastes with gum tragacanth and fresh butter.

  4. Cut the bacon into cubes and remove any rind or gristle from the bacon cubes.

Season and mellow

  1. Mix all the meats together with the minced garlic, shallots, juniper berries, Jamaica pepper, black peppercorns, sea salt, and sugar.

  2. Season the mixture well.

  3. Place the seasoned mixture in a jar for a week to mellow.

  4. Work the mixture for half an hour.

Stuff and cook

  1. Soak the largest ox intestines in lukewarm saltwater.

  2. Dry the soaked intestines.

  3. Fill the intestines with the meat mixture.

  4. Keep out the air by applying even pressure.

  5. Prick the intestines where necessary.

  6. Make the polonies about a foot long.

  7. Set the polonies aside until the next day.

  8. Repeat the pressure.

  9. Tie the polonies up securely.

  10. Boil the polonies in salted water with a little saltpetre for a short time.

  11. Simmer the polonies for half an hour.

  12. Remove the polonies.

  13. Wipe them dry.

  14. Hang the polonies in a current of air for a week, turning daily.

  15. Smoke the polonies with oak chips.

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. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Beef + garlictop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard back fat of bacon
Adds fat that keeps the sausage moist and carries flavor through the mixture.
Lean belfast smoked ham
Provides the meaty base and smoky flavor of the filling.
Fat belfast smoked ham
Adds richness and moisture to the filling during cooking and mellowing.
Hung beef
Contributes concentrated, well-aged meat flavor to the filling.
Smoked ox tongues
Adds a tender, rich texture and smoky depth to the filling.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and savory notes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Pounding the meats into smooth pastes. Working the meat with fat and binder until smooth gives an even, cohesive texture. Uneven pounding leaves lumps and pockets that can crumble or cook unevenly.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, shallot, pepper, sugar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, shallot, pepper, sugar. 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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