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German Sausages

A mixture of lean beef, lean pork, bacon fat, and suet seasoned with salt, pepper, spices, herbs, eggs, and flour, stuffed into ox‑guts and smoked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

German Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine equal parts of chopped lean beef and lean pork with more than half that quantity of chopped bacon fat and beef suet.

  2. Season the meat mixture with salt, saltpetre, black pepper, allspice, and cloves. Mix well and let it sit overnight.

  3. Chop the herbs (red sage, thyme, marjoram, winter savory) and mix them into the meat mixture.

  4. Add the eggs and flour to the meat mixture and pound everything together until well combined.

Stuff and smoke

  1. Stuff the mixture into ox‑guts.

  2. Smoke the sausages over sawdust for several days.

Cook and dry

  1. Prick the skins, then boil the sausages in a pot of boiling water for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on thickness.

  2. Lay the sausages on clean straw to dry.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Sage + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

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 lean meat structure of the sausage.
Lean pork
Adds lean meat bulk and a mild flavour to the filling.
Bacon fat
Adds fat that keeps the sausage moist and juicy as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds hard fat that enriches the filling and keeps it moist.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds together when cooked.
Flour
Absorbs juices and helps the filling bind and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Prick the skins before boiling. Pricking lets steam and melted fat escape so the casings do not split or burst. Boiling time must match the sausage's thickness so the centre cooks through without drying the outside.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, pepper, allspice, sage, thyme, marjoram. 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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