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Veal Sausages

A sausage made from equal parts lean veal and fat bacon, seasoned with sage, anchovies, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Veal Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine equal amounts of lean veal and fat bacon in a bowl.

  2. Add a handful of chopped sage and a few anchovies.

  3. Beat the mixture with a mortar and pestle until well combined.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

  5. Shape the mixture into sausages and fry them until cooked through.

  6. Serve with fried bread or on a bed of stewed vegetables.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean veal
Provides the main meaty body and structure of the sausage.
Fat bacon
Adds fat for moisture and juiciness as the sausages cook.
Anchovies
Contribute savory depth that rounds out the flavour of the meat.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture into sausages and fry them until cooked through. Veal is lean and the bacon fat is the only moisture source, so frying too hot can dry the outside before the centre is cooked. Cook gently and check that the centre is fully cooked through before serving.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper):

  1. Sagethe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper. 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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