Name: Creole Sausages
Ingredients: 1 lb sausages; 1 qt tomatoes (or half a can); 1 small clove garlic; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper

Why it works: Tomato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,076 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Creole Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wipe the sausages with a damp cloth and prick them with a fork.
Peel and slice the tomatoes, or use half a can, and add them to a deep saucepan with the sausages.
Bruise the garlic clove and add it to the saucepan.

Simmer

Season with salt and pepper, cover the saucepan, and simmer gently for 30 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.

Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 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

Sausages: Provide the main protein and fat that flavour the stew as they render into the liquid.
Tomatoes: Supply liquid and acidity, forming the body of the stew as they break down during simmering.
Garlic: Adds a pungent aroma that mellows and becomes sweeter during gentle simmering.