Name: Sausage Rolls
Ingredients: nice sausage meat (or 2/3 lean pork and 1/3 fat); pepper; coarse sea salt; spices; a small quantity of sage or basil; water (or soaked bread); puff pastry; 1 egg (for washing)

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sausage Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

If making sausage meat, chop pork chops, removing bones and gristle.
Mix 2/3 lean meat with 1/3 fat, season with pepper, coarse sea salt, spices, and herbs.
Add a little water or soaked bread while chopping the meat.
Roll out puff pastry into square pieces.
Place a roll of meat in the center of each square, then fold to form long puffs.
Brush the puffs with beaten egg before baking.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sage + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,778 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).