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 ↓
Sausage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Line a medium-sized pudding basin with good suet crust.
Scald the sausages.
Remove the skins and fill the basin with the sausages.
In a pan, fry the minced onion and sage leaves in butter until the onion turns yellow.
Sprinkle the flour over the onion.
Pour in the stock and stir until it boils.
Season the sauce with salt and cayenne.
Let the sauce cool.
Strain the sauce over the sausages.
Cover and boil
Cover the pudding with a piece of the pastry used to line the dish.
Tie the pudding in a pudding cloth.
Plunge the pudding into boiling water.
Boil quickly for 1.5 hours until the pudding is cooked through.
Turn the pudding out onto a hot dish.
Serve with brown gravy.
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.
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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,527 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Good suet crust
- Forms the outer pastry that holds the filling and gives a tender, sturdy casing.
- Fresh pork sausages
- Provide the main filling, supplying savoury flavour and richness as they cook.
- Onion
- Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding savoury depth to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and onion mixture, giving the stock a smooth, body-rich sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the frying of the onion and sage, adding fat and rich flavour.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
The step that matters
Boil quickly for 1.5 hours. The pudding must stay at a steady rolling boil in water so the suet crust cooks through and stays light. Water that drops below boiling slows cooking and can leave the pastry heavy and doughy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sage, butter, flour, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, butter, flour, 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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