Name: To Make Polish Sausage
Ingredients: 25 lb pork (2 parts lean, 1 part fat); 1 lb coarse sea salt; a little sugar; 3 sticks garlic; 1 quart water; ¼ oz black pepper; ¼ oz nutmeg; narrow pigs' casings (2 ft. 6 in. long)

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Make Polish Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the pork

Salt the pork with 1 lb of coarse sea salt and a little sugar for a few days.
Finely grate the garlic.
Salt the garlic.
Stir in 1 quart of water.
Chop the salted pork into pieces the size of a hazelnut.
Add the chopped pork to the garlic mixture.
Mix in ¼ oz of black pepper.
Mix in ¼ oz of nutmeg.

Stuff and dry

Stuff the mixture into narrow pigs' casings, filling them well.
Tie the casings.
Double them so each sausage is 15 in. long.
Hang the sausages on a smoking stick to dry for a day.

Smoke and cook

Smoke the sausages at 133°F (56°C) until thoroughly cooked inside.
Smoke lightly until they are a yellowish-red color.
Boil for 20 minutes.

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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + garlictop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,169 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Garlic + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,630 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork: Provides the meat and fat that form the body and juiciness of the sausage.
Coarse sea salt: Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, helping it bind and preserve.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma and savory flavor throughout the sausage.
Black pepper: Adds sharp, aromatic heat that seasons the sausage mixture.
Nutmeg: Adds warm, sweet-spiced aroma to the sausage.

The step that matters

Smoke at 133°F (56°C) until thoroughly cooked inside. Pork must reach a safe internal temperature to be fully cooked. Holding the sausage at this heat long enough cooks it through without drying the outside too early, so the centre is not left undercooked.