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Brain Sausage

A sausage made from calf brains, pork, onions, salt, and pepper, boiled and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brain Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Skin the calf brains and mash them.

  2. Mix the mashed brains with the lean and fat pork, which should be finely ground.

  3. Add the grated onions, salt, and pepper to the meat mixture and combine thoroughly.

Stuff and cook

  1. Stuff the mixture into small beef casings and tie into rings.

  2. Boil the sausages in pure water for 5 minutes.

  3. Plunge the sausages into cold water to cool.

Store

  1. Store in a dry, cool room until ready to use.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. 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

Calf brains
Adds a soft, rich texture and creamy body to the sausage filling.
Lean pork
Provides the main meaty bulk and structure of the sausage.
Fat pork
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the sausage from drying out.
Grated onions
Contribute moisture and savory flavour throughout the mixture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper. 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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