Name: Sausage Roles
Ingredients: 4 sausages; 2 cups flour; 2 tablespoons butter; 3 ounces lard; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; a little water; a little milk

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sausage Roles

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the pastry

In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder together.
Add enough water to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the paste on a floured surface and spread with lard or butter.
Fold the dough into thirds and roll it out again, repeating the spreading and folding process three times.
Roll the dough out thin and cut into pieces the length of a sausage.

Wrap and bake

Cut each sausage in half and place each half on a piece of pastry.
Fold the pastry over the sausage and press the edges together with a knife, sealing the join on top.
Brush the tops with a little milk and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure once mixed with water.
Lard: Spread and folded into the dough, it creates layers and a flaky, tender texture.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the pastry rise and become light.
Milk: Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.