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Mutton Sausages

Sausages made from minced mutton, beef suet, anchovies, oysters, and herbs, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mutton Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the mutton extremely small.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg.

  3. Add beef suet, sweet herbs, chopped anchovies, and chopped oysters.

  4. Mix in grated bread, anchovy liquor, and beaten eggs.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls or sausage shapes.

  2. Fry the sausages until golden brown.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape while frying.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and keeps the sausage tender rather than dense.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the sausage juicy and carries flavour.
Leg of mutton
Provides the main meat and savoury flavour of the sausage.

The step that matters

Fry the sausages until golden brown. Frying over steady heat browns the outside through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour and colour, while the inside needs to cook fully. Too high a heat can scorch the outside before the centre is cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, pepper, nutmeg, oyster, bread, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, pepper, nutmeg, oyster, bread, anchovy. 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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