Name: Thuringian Sausage Recipe
Ingredients: 56 pounds medium fat pork bellies, half cooked and diced into 1/3 inch pieces; 12 pounds pig skin, cooked and chopped fine; 16 pounds raw hog plucks (liver and heart), chopped fine; 32 pounds fresh blood, kept hot and well agitated; 3 pounds fine salt (to taste); 5 ounces white pepper; 1.5 ounces finely ground marjoram; 0.5 ounces ground caraway; 1.5 cloves

Why it works: Marjoram and clove 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 ↓

Thuringian Sausage Recipe

Ingredients

56 pounds medium fat pork bellies, half cooked and diced into 1/3 inch pieces
12 pounds pig skin, cooked and chopped fine
16 pounds raw hog plucks (liver and heart), chopped fine
32 pounds fresh blood, kept hot and well agitated
3 pounds fine salt (to taste)
5 ounces white pepper
1.5 ounces finely ground marjoram
0.5 ounces ground caraway
1.5 cloves

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 212°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

In a large bowl, combine the diced pork bellies, chopped pig skin, and chopped hog plucks.
Add the hot, agitated fresh blood to the mixture and mix well.
Incorporate the drained belly fat into the mixture and blend thoroughly.
Mix the salt and spices together before adding them to the meat mixture, then amalgamate everything well.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the mixture into hog casings, ensuring they are stuffed loosely to prevent bursting.
Prick the sausages to release air bubbles and prevent bursting during cooking.
Immediately place the stuffed sausages in water just below boiling point (around 212°F) and keep them in constant motion until cooked.

Smoke

Once cooled, smoke the sausages in a cool smoke.

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.

Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,075 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Marjoram + carawaytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together23 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Caraway + clovetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together143 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together883 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh blood: Thickens the filling and binds the meat as it sets during cooking.
Pig skin: Adds gelatin that helps bind the filling and gives a moist, firm texture.
Pork bellies: Supply fat that keeps the sausage moist and juicy as it cooks.
Hog plucks: Contribute body and rich flavour to the filling as chopped liver and heart.
Fine salt: Seasons the filling and helps draw out proteins that bind the mixture.

The step that matters

Stuffing the casings loosely. Filling is expanded by heat as it cooks, and tight casings can split. Pricking releases trapped air, and keeping the water just below boiling with constant motion cooks the sausages gently without bursting.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, liver, marjoram, caraway, clove):

Thymefits better
Sagefits better
Allspicefits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, liver, marjoram, caraway, clove. 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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Thuringian Sausage Recipe