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Mutton Sausages

A savory sausage made from mutton, beef suet, bread crumbs, oysters, anchovies, herbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mutton Sausages

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the mutton and beef suet separately.

  2. Mix the chopped mutton, suet, bread crumbs, oysters, anchovies, thyme, marjoram, mace, pepper, and salt in a bowl.

  3. Moisten the mixture with the beaten eggs and a little anchovy liquor if needed.

Shape and cook

  1. Form the mixture into sausages or balls.

  2. Fry the sausages for 7 to 8 minutes until cooked through.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and add moisture so the shaped sausages hold their form.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the sausages a softer, tender texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the lean mutton moist and gives a richer mouthfeel when fried.
Mutton
Provides the main meaty flavour and the bulk of the sausage.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury depth of flavour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Frying the sausages. The mixture is raw and lean-based, so it must be cooked through without drying out. Frying over moderate heat browns the outside while the fat from the suet keeps the interior moist; too high heat can scorch the surface before the centre is cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, bread, oyster, thyme, marjoram, pepper):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, bread, oyster, thyme, marjoram, 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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