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Lyons Sausages

A traditional sausage made from lean pork, veal, pork fat, and seasonings, cured and smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Lyons Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Mince the lean pork and veal finely, then pound the minced meat in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Cut the pork fat into small dice and mix it with the minced meat.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, saltpetre, bruised shallots, ground pepper, and whole peppercorns.

  4. Leave the mixture to rest for 24 hours.

Stuff and cure

  1. Clean the sausage skins thoroughly and fill them tightly with the meat mixture.

  2. Secure the ends of the sausages with string.

  3. Place the sausages in an earthen pan with salt and a small amount of saltpetre on top and bottom.

  4. Let them cure for a week.

Dry and finish

  1. After a week, dry the sausages in a smokehouse or over a wood fire.

  2. Boil bay leaves, thyme, and sage in wine-lees, if available.

  3. Dip the sausages in the herb mixture, tie the ends with fresh string, and dry them again.

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

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

  2. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pork + shallottop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 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

Lean pork
Forms the main body of the sausage and gives it a firm, meaty texture.
Pork fat
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the sausage juicy as it cures and dries.
Lean veal
Adds a fine, delicate texture to the meat mixture.
Saltpetre
Helps cure the meat and gives it a characteristic pink colour and preserved flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while it cures.

The step that matters

Pounding the minced meat until smooth. Pounding breaks the meat fibres down so the mixture binds evenly and holds together in the skins, giving a fine, cohesive texture.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Shallotthe original

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