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Oxfokd Sausages

A sausage made from lean pork, lean veal, fat pork and veal, bread crumbs, sage, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 642 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Oxfokd Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the lean pork, veal, and fat very fine.

  2. Beat the mixture with a lard-beater or use a machine.

Season and bind

  1. Add the bread crumbs and chopped sage leaves.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Beat the egg yolk separately, then mix it into the meat mixture.

  4. Add enough egg white to moisten the bread and help the mixture adhere.

Shape and cook

  1. Form the mixture into sausages and dust with flour to prevent sticking.

  2. Fry the sausages over a clear fire.

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.

  1. Sage + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean pork
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the sausage.
Lean veal
Adds a mild, delicate meat flavour and a tender texture to the filling.
Fat pork and veal
Supplies fat that keeps the sausage moist and juicy as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and fat, helping the sausage hold together and stay tender.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the sausages hold their shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Adding the egg white. Enough egg white must moisten the bread and bind the mixture; too little leaves the sausages crumbly, while too much makes them wet and loose.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, veal, bread, sage, pepper, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, veal, bread, sage, pepper, egg. 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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