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Vegetable Sausages

Vegetable sausages made from mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, tomatoes, eggs, butter, parsley, and beans or lentils, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Vegetable Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix together the mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, bruised tomatoes, beaten eggs, butter, chopped parsley, and cooked butter beans or lentils.

  2. Shape the mixture into sausage shapes.

Fry

  1. Fry the sausages in boiling fat 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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 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

Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture, helping the mixture hold together while shaping.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the sausages a firmer, less sticky texture.
Beaten eggs
Bind the mixture so the sausages keep their shape when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture.
Cooked butter beans or lentils
Provide the main bulk and protein-rich body of the vegetable filling.
Bruised tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, contributing savoury flavour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling fat until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. Browning creates flavour and a crisp crust, and a crust helps the soft filling hold its shape. Fat that is too cool lets the sausages soak up oil and fall apart.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, bread, egg, butter, parsley):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, bread, egg, butter, parsley. 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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