Name: Kentish Sausage-meat
Ingredients: 3 pounds lean pork, skin removed; 2 pounds fat pork, skin removed; 2.5 ounces coarse sea salt; 1 ounce ground black pepper; 3 tablespoons finely minced sage

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Kentish Sausage-meat

Ingredients

3 pounds lean pork, skin removed
2 pounds fat pork, skin removed
2.5 ounces coarse sea salt
1 ounce ground black pepper
3 tablespoons finely minced sage

Directions

Coarsely chop the lean and fat pork.
In a bowl, combine the chopped pork with salt, black pepper, and sage.
Mix the ingredients thoroughly using a chopping knife.
Fry a small portion to test the seasoning, adjusting if necessary.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,527 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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