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Ham Sausage

Ham sausage made with minced ham, bread crumbs, onion, pepper, and eggs, boiled in a pudding cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine minced ham, bread crumbs, chopped onion, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

Shape and boil

  1. Tie the mixture in a pudding cloth like a roly-poly pudding.

  2. Boil slowly for 1 hour.

Cool and finish

  1. Once cooled, remove from the cloth and glaze.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set firm as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help hold the loaf together.
Ham
Provides the main meaty flavour and body of the sausage.
Onion
Adds aroma and sweetness and some moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 1 hour. A gentle simmer cooks the egg and crumb binder evenly without a rolling boil. Vigorous boiling can make the casing-wrapped mixture swell, crack, or turn tough and crumbly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, pepper, egg. 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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