Why it works: Meat and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,533 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Summer Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Thoroughly clean and soak the casings.
Chop and season the fresh meats with salt, saltpetre, and spices.
Mix the meat mixture well.
Spread the mixture in a cooler at 38-40°F (3-4°C) for at least two days before stuffing.
Stuff the casings with the meat mixture, ensuring no air is trapped.
Hang the stuffed sausages in a dry room at 50-55°F (10-13°C) for about three days.
Smoke the sausages starting at 50°F (10°C) and gradually increase to 70°F (21°C) over 24 hours for beef middles, or longer for hog bungs.
After smoking, return sausages to the dry room at 50-55°F (10-13°C) until ready for storage.
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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Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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