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Preserve

Spanish Sausage

A pork sausage seasoned with salt, Spanish red pepper, cayenne, garlic, turmeric, soaked in wine and vinegar, then stuffed into ox skins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Spanish Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fat and lean pork into equal parts.

  2. Beat together salpiment, Spanish red pepper, cayenne, garlic, and turmeric in a bowl.

Cure and store

  1. Soak the mixture in Malaga wine and strong vinegar for one week.

  2. Stuff the mixture into large ox skins and store in a dry place.

Serve

  1. Toss slices in olive oil before serving and garnish with pickled green capsicums.

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.

  1. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Garlic + turmerictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,363 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat and lean pork
Provides the meat and fat that give the chorizo its body, juiciness and texture.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma and savory depth to the spice mixture.
Malaga wine
Adds sweetness and fruity aroma while the mixture soaks.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps the mixture tenderize during soaking.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and a sharp pungent bite to the seasoning.

The step that matters

Soaking the mixture for one week. The wine and vinegar need time to soak into the meat and spices, so the acidity mellows and the flavors blend. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the seasoning harsh and unevenly flavored.

Swap the turmeric

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, clove, garlic, wine, vinegar, olive):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Turmericthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, clove, garlic, wine, vinegar, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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