Name: Berliner Blood Sausage
Ingredients: 50 lbs suitable filler; 35 lbs raw solid bacon; 8 lbs back fat-skins; 7 lbs fresh hog blood; ½ lb salt; 7 oz whole white pepper; 14½ oz cloves; 3 oz pimento; 1/3 oz marjoram

Why it works: Clove and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,075 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Berliner Blood Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Cut the bacon into very small cubes and seal with boiling water.
Add the back fat-skins to the bacon.
Strain the fresh hog blood and add it to the mixture.
Incorporate the salt and spices into the meat mixture thoroughly.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the mixture into medium casings, avoiding overfilling.
Place the sausages in water at 72°C (162°F) and puncture to release air.
Cook for one hour at this temperature.

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.

Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,075 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
White pepper + marjoramtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
White pepper + clovetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together752 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hog blood: Binds the filling and adds richness and body to the sausage mixture.
Bacon: Adds fat and moisture, keeping the filling tender and juicy as it cooks.
Back fat-skins: Supplies extra fat and gelatinous texture that keeps the filling moist.
Filler: Provides bulk and body, diluting the meat and fat into a sliceable mass.

The step that matters

Place the sausages in water at 72°C (162°F) and puncture to release air. Holding the water at a steady 72°C cooks the blood and fat gently without boiling, which would split the filling and make it crumbly. Puncturing releases trapped air so the casing stays in contact with the filling and does not bulge or burst.