Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Polish Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the pork with 1 pound of salt and a little sugar for a few days.
Grate the garlic, salt it, and mix it with 1 quart of water.
Add the diced pork to the garlic mixture.
Stir in 1½ ounces of pepper and ½ ounce of grated nutmeg.
Stuff the mixture into narrow pig skins, filling them very full.
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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Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,090 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sugar, clove, pepper, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, clove, pepper, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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