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Mutton Sausages

Mutton sausages made with ground mutton, suet, herbs, anchovies, oysters, bread, anchovy liquor, and eggs.

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 and season with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg.

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

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

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into balls or sausage shapes.

  2. Fry the shaped 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

Leg of mutton
Provides the main meat flavour and the body of the sausage.
Beef suet
Adds fat, which keeps the sausage moist and tender as it cooks.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and extra moisture to the filling.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and helps bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together as they set during cooking.
Anchovies
Add savoury depth, a salty umami note that blends into the meat.

The step that matters

Chop the mutton extremely small. Fine chopping gives an even, tender texture and helps the sausage bind well. Coarse pieces stay chewy and can make the mixture fall apart when shaped and fried.

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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