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Veal Sausages

A mixture of bacon, veal, sage, salt, pepper, and optional anchovy formed into cakes and fried.

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

Prepare

  1. Chop the fat bacon and lean veal together until well mixed.

  2. Season the mixture with sage, salt, and pepper to taste.

  3. If using, chop the anchovy and add it to the mixture.

Cook

  1. Form the mixture into small cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in a skillet until golden brown.

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 + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

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

  4. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. 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

Fat bacon
Adds fat that keeps the patties moist and carries flavor as they cook.
Lean veal
Provides the main meaty body that holds the patty together.
Anchovy
Adds a savory depth of flavor, optional in this recipe.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in a skillet until golden brown. Browning happens through the Maillard reaction, which needs a hot, dry surface and enough time to develop flavor. Crowding the pan or cooking at too low a heat steams the patties and leaves them pale and bland.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, anchovy. 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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