Name: Pork Sausage
Ingredients: 3 pounds pork (fat and lean, ground twice); 1 tablespoon salt; 1 tablespoon powdered sage; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 pinch red pepper; 2 small red peppers (chopped fine)

Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Sausage

Ingredients

3 pounds pork (fat and lean, ground twice)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon powdered sage
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 pinch red pepper
2 small red peppers (chopped fine)

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, salt, sage, black pepper, red pepper, and chopped red peppers.
Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well combined.

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.

Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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