Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Pork Sausages English
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the fat pork and lean pork finely.
Add the chopped sage leaves, lemon thyme, and bread crumbs.
Mix the ingredients well and season with nutmeg, mace, cloves, black pepper, and salt.
Stuff the mixture into sausage skins or pack it into jars covered from the air for later use.
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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Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,485 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,973 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,108 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sage, lemon, thyme, bread, nutmeg, clove):
- Marjoramfits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, lemon, thyme, bread, nutmeg, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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