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 ↓
Tongue Blood Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Place hog rinds in a bag and cook for 2 hours until soft.
Chop the cooked rinds finely with the onions.
Cook the back fat or pork cheeks for 1 hour, then cut into small squares.
Mix the chopped rinds, back fat, and hog blood together.
Add salt, pepper, marjoram, cloves, and mace; mix well by hand.
Stuff and cook
Stuff the mixture into hog stomachs or beef bungs by hand, adding the boiled pork tongues.
Heat water to 180°F (82°C) and cook the sausages for 2 to 3 hours.
After cooking, place them in cold water for 10 minutes.
Let them cool on a bench until the next day.
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 pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,075 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Onion + porktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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
- Hog blood
- Binds the filling and sets firm when cooked, giving the sausage its body.
- Hog rinds
- Adds gelatin that helps the sausage hold together and gives a moist, firm texture.
- Back fat or pork cheeks
- Provides fat that keeps the sausage moist and tender during cooking.
- Boiled pork tongues
- Adds meaty pieces and richness to the filling.
The step that matters
Heating the sausages in water at 180°F (82°C). Water held near 180°F cooks the blood and filling through gently. Boiling can make the casings burst and the blood mixture turn rubbery or porous.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pork, pepper, marjoram, clove):
- Thymefits better
- Allspicefits better
- Sagefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pork, pepper, marjoram, 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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