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Bologna Sausages

A sausage made from lean beef, ham, pork, bacon fat, mace, white pepper, coarse sea salt, garlic, and bay leaves, boiled and smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Bologna Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. In a mortar, beat the beef, ham, pork, and bacon fat together until a fine paste forms.

  2. Add the mace, white pepper, coarse sea salt, garlic, and bay leaves to the meat mixture and blend well.

  3. Fill large sausage skins with the mixture, pressing it down tightly and tying them securely.

  4. Prick the skins lightly with a pin to prevent bursting.

Cook and cure

  1. Boil the sausages gently for three hours.

  2. After boiling, place them on a cloth to cool, turning them every few minutes to prevent moisture settling.

  3. Once cool, hang the sausages in a chimney and smoke them for one week using oak dust.

  4. Store the sausages in a dry room.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Ham + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Pork + garlictop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Beef + garlictop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main lean meat structure that sets firm when cooked.
Ham
Adds cured, savoury flavour and meaty body to the paste.
Pork
Contributes meaty richness and a tender, cohesive texture.
Bacon fat
Adds fat for moisture and a smooth, juicy mouthfeel.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out moisture and firm the texture.
Garlic
Provides pungent aroma and savoury flavour that mellows with cooking.

The step that matters

Pricking the skins. Pricking lets steam escape during boiling, so the casings do not burst. Trapped steam can split the skin and let the filling leak and dry out.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, pork, mace, garlic):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, pork, mace, garlic. 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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