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Sausages and Chestnuts

A stew of sausages and roasted chestnuts in a wine and broth sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chestnut and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 517 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sausages and Chestnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the fat from frying the sausages in a pan.

  2. Mix in the flour and stir over heat until browned.

  3. Gradually pour in the broth and wine.

  4. Add the herbs, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil.

Stew

  1. Place the sausages around the pan.

  2. Place the chestnuts in the center.

  3. Stew gently for nearly 1 hour.

  4. Remove the herbs.

Serve

  1. Plate the sausages.

  2. Heap the chestnuts.

  3. Strain the sauce over the dish and serve hot.

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. Chestnut + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together517 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Chestnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  5. Chestnut + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks and browns with the fat, giving body and color.
Beef or veal broth
Forms the savory liquid base of the sauce and gives it depth.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, meaty sauce.
Chestnuts
Soften during gentle stewing, absorbing sauce and adding starchy body and mild sweetness.
Sausages
Release fat and flavor into the pan, which then seasons the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the hot fat until browned. Flour must cook in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste and brown slightly; if it is added too cold or not stirred, it clumps and the sauce tastes floury.

Swap the chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, flour, pepper):

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Chestnutthe original
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Lentilsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, flour, pepper. 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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