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Sausage, Beef and Bean Casserole

"In just about 45 minutes you can make this hearty casserole, hot and bubbling from the oven and featuring a flavorful combination of sausage, stuffing, ground beef, spinach and white beans in a delectable mushroom-blue cheese sauce."

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Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,669 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-ethylphenol, which smells must. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep15 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Set a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.

  2. Add the sausage pieces and cook, stirring, for 8 minutes until browned and cooked through to 160°F (71°C) inside.

  3. Add the ground beef and chopped onion. Cook, breaking up the beef, for 6 to 8 minutes until the beef reaches 160°F (71°C) and the onion is soft. Drain excess fat.

  4. Stir in the spinach a handful at a time and cook for about 2 minutes until wilted.

  5. Stir in the cream of mushroom soup, milk and drained white kidney beans. Simmer for 3 minutes.

  6. Scatter the stuffing over the top, then sprinkle with the blue cheese or Cheddar cheese.

  7. Bake for 12 minutes until bubbling around the edges and the topping is golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,669 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  2. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + blue cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Pork + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + blue cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, beef, onion, spinach, cream, milk, blue cheese):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  3. Peanutbetter flavor fit
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, beef, onion, spinach, cream, milk, blue cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).