Name: Liver Puddings
Ingredients: pork livers; pepper; coarse sea salt; sage; cayenne; large sausage skins

Why it works: Pepper and sage 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 ↓

Liver Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the pork livers until very tender.
Chop the livers finely and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and cayenne.
Take large sausage skins and stuff them about nine inches long.
Tie the ends securely and poke holes with a fork to prevent bursting.
Boil the stuffed skins slowly in a pot for one hour.
Once cool, pack the puddings in stone jars for storage.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Liver + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together229 recipes

Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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