Name: Brain Sausages
Ingredients: 2 calf brains, cleaned and washed; 1 pound lean pork, finely chopped; 1 pound fat pork, finely chopped; 4-5 raw onions, grated; 1 ounce salt; ½ ounce ground pepper; beef casings

Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Brain Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Clean and wash the brains thoroughly.
In a bowl, combine the brains, lean pork, fat pork, grated onions, salt, and ground pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the mixture into beef casings.
Boil the sausages for about 5 minutes.
Hang the sausages in a cool place until ready for use.

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.

Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf brains: Provide the soft, rich base that gives the sausage its distinctive texture.
Fat pork: Adds fat, which keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Lean pork: Gives the filling body and structure so it holds together in the casing.
Raw onions: Add moisture and a sharp, aromatic flavour to the filling.