Name: Sausage Meat
Ingredients: 27 pounds fillet; 24 pounds chine fat; ¾ cup coarse sea salt; 6 ounces sage; 3 ounces pepper; 1 teaspoon saltpetre; 1 teaspoon red pepper; 1 teaspoon cloves, pounded fine

Why it works: Sage and pepper 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 Meat

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the fillet and chine fat.
Add the coarse sea salt, sage, pepper, saltpetre, red pepper, and cloves.
Mix all ingredients well.
If necessary, pass the mixture through a meat grinder twice.

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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).