Name: Pohtuguese Sausages
Ingredients: 2-year-old pork (fat and lean); Spanish or red pepper; black pepper; coarse sea salt; garlic; dry wine

Why it works: Pepper and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,090 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pohtuguese Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the pork into 1-inch square pieces.
Season with Spanish or red pepper, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and garlic; mix well.
Cover the mixture with dry wine, adding more as it is absorbed, and let it marinate for 8 days.
Fill the largest sausage casings with the meat mixture, alternating fat and lean, and add some wine occasionally.
Tie into links and hang in a cool, dry place to cure for up to 12 months.
Serve boiled or fried as a relish with white meat.

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.

Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,790 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pork + garlictop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,169 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

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