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Mutton Sausages

A sausage made from minced mutton, beef suet, anchovies, oysters, and spices, fried until cooked.

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

  1. Chop the mutton extremely small.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg.

  3. Add beef suet, sweet herbs, chopped anchovies, and chopped oysters.

Form and cook

  1. Mix in grated bread, anchovy liquor, and beaten eggs.

  2. Form the mixture into balls or sausage shapes.

  3. Fry the sausages 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. Beef + peppertop 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when formed and fried.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and fat, keeping the filling soft and tender rather than dry.
Beef suet
Adds fat that melts during frying, giving moisture and a richer texture.
Leg of mutton
Provides the main meat body and flavour of the sausage.
Oysters
Contribute a savoury, briny flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Chop the mutton extremely small. Fine chopping gives an even, cohesive texture so the sausages bind well and cook through evenly. Coarse pieces can stay tough and separate from the binder.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, pepper, nutmeg, oyster, bread, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, pepper, nutmeg, 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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