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Bologna Sausages, Imitation of

A sausage made from lean beef, lean pork, suet, spices, bacon, and wrapped in ox skins, then brined and simmered.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Bologna Sausages, Imitation of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine the lean beef, lean pork, and finely chopped suet in a large bowl.

  2. Add the powdered thyme, mace, and pepper, mixing well.

Stuff and cure

  1. Stuff the mixture into the ox skins, using the fat bacon strips as needed.

  2. Tie the ends of the sausages securely and place them in brine for preservation.

  3. Simmer the sausages gently until cooked through.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Thyme + macetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty structure and savory flavor of the sausage.
Lean pork
Adds meaty body and flavor to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Powdered thyme
Contributes herbal aroma to the seasoned filling.
Mace
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Simmer the sausages gently until cooked through. Gentle heat cooks the filling evenly without boiling the casings open or making the meat tough and grainy. Fat and proteins set more tenderly at lower temperatures, so a slow simmer keeps the texture juicy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, thyme, 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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