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Pounded Sausage-meat

A stew of sausage cakes and roasted chestnuts simmered in beef broth, white wine, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pounded Sausage-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Roast and shell forty chestnuts, removing husk and skin.

  2. Fry six small flat oval cakes of sausage meat gently in a morsel of butter until well browned.

  3. Transfer the browned sausage cakes to a bright saucepan, leaving most of the fat.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix in a large teaspoonful of flour and stir over the fire until the mixture is well browned.

  2. Gradually pour in nearly half a pint of strong beef or veal broth (or gravy) and two glasses of good white wine, stirring.

  3. Add a small bunch of savoury herbs and season with salt, pepper, or cayenne to taste.

Stew and serve

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lay the sausage cakes around the pan and the roasted chestnuts in the centre.

  2. Stew very softly for nearly an hour.

  3. Remove the herbs, serve the sausages neatly, heap the chestnuts in the centre, strain the sauce over them, and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

742Calories
39 gProtein
17 gFat
98 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sausage meat
Browns in butter and fat, flavouring the sauce and giving the dish its savoury body.
Flour
Browned with the fat, it thickens the sauce and adds a nutty, toasted flavour.
Strong beef broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding meaty depth and moisture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, brightening the rich sauce.
Chestnuts (in the method)
Soften during the gentle stew, adding starchy body and a mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Brown the flour in the fat. Cooking the flour until well browned develops its toasted flavour and colour and cooks out raw starch taste. Stirring keeps it from scorching before the liquid is added.

“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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