Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Potato Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine equal parts cold finely chopped veal and cold mashed potatoes in a bowl.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.
Cook
Form the mixture into small cakes and dust them with flour.
Fry the cakes in a skillet until they are light brown.
If desired, fry them in leftover sausage gravy.
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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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Veal + potatotop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the meaty flavor and body that define the sausage.
- Mashed potatoes
- Adds bulk and moisture, and binds the mixture into a tender cake.
- Flour
- Dusting helps the cakes brown evenly and form a light crust in the pan.
The step that matters
Frying the cakes until light brown. The cakes are fragile and can break or stick if the pan is not hot enough or they are turned too early. Browning develops flavor and a crisp surface, so cook over steady heat until the surface sets before turning.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, flour):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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