Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓
Summer Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Finely chop the beef, then add the pork trimmings and pork back fat, chopping until fine.
While chopping, add the salt, Freeze-Em-Pickle, sugar, sausage seasoning, and flour.
Pack the mixture tightly into shallow pans or boxes, about 6 to 8 inches deep.
Place the pans in a cooler at 40°F (4°C) for 4 to 6 days to chill thoroughly.
Stuff and cure
Stuff the sausage mixture into hog bung casings or beef middle casings.
Hang the stuffed casings in a dry room at 45 to 50°F (7 to 10°C) for 2 to 3 weeks.
After hanging, smoke the sausages for a few hours to add flavor.
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.
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,187 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + sugartop 37% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,579 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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
- Beef
- Provides the main meaty body and structure of the sausage.
- Pork back fat
- Adds fat for moisture and a juicy, tender texture in the finished sausage.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the meat and helps draw out moisture and bind the mixture.
- Freeze-em-pickle
- Supplies the curing agent that keeps the sausage safe and gives it its cured color and flavor.
- Granulated sugar
- Balances the salt and rounds out flavor while feeding the curing process.
- All-purpose flour
- Helps absorb moisture and bind the mixture for a firmer texture.
The step that matters
Chilling the packed mixture in the cooler. The mixture must stay cold while the cure works, because warm meat and fat can spoil or smear. Keeping it thoroughly chilled for the full 4 to 6 days lets the cure penetrate evenly and keeps the fat from softening.
“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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