Why it works: Flour and sage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sausage Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
Open the tin of minced meat carefully.
Remove the fat from the top of the meat.
In a bowl, combine ½ lb of minced meat with salt and pepper.
Finely chop the sage leaves and mix them into the minced meat.
In another bowl, combine ¾ lb of flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder and salt.
Rub the clarified dripping into the flour until well mixed.
Add enough water to form a stiff paste.
Flour a surface and turn out the paste, dividing it in two.
Roll each portion into a thin sheet, about ⅛ inch thick.
Cut the paste into squares, approximately 6 inches each.
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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Flour + sagetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,115 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + sagetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together469 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,529 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Swap the sage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, egg):
- Jalapenofits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Sagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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