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Mutton Sausages

A sausage made from finely chopped mutton, suet, herbs, anchovies, oysters, bread, anchovy liquor, and eggs, then fried.

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 filling

  1. Chop the mutton extremely small and season with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the beef suet, sweet herbs, anchovies, and oysters, all chopped very small.

  3. Mix in the grated bread, anchovy liquor, and beaten eggs until well combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls or sausage shapes.

  2. Fry the sausages in a pan 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. 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. Pepper + beeftop 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

Mutton
Provides the main meat body and savory flavor of the sausage.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the filling a softer, binding body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when fried.
Oysters
Contribute moisture and a briny, savory depth of flavor.

The step that matters

Fry the sausages in a pan until cooked through. The mixture is raw and held together by beaten egg, so it must be cooked through to set the egg and make the meat safe to eat. Frying over moderate heat lets the outside brown before the centre is done, so the cook should check that the middle is fully cooked.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, nutmeg, beef, 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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