Name: Pork Sausages
Ingredients: 8 pounds lean pork, free from gristle and skin; 4 pounds beef suet, chopped fine; as much pork fat, shredded very fine; a good handful of sage; 2 nutmegs, grated; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 3 teaspoons sweet herbs, chopped very fine

Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Pork Sausages

Ingredients

8 pounds lean pork, free from gristle and skin
4 pounds beef suet, chopped fine
as much pork fat, shredded very fine
a good handful of sage
2 nutmegs, grated
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
3 teaspoons sweet herbs, chopped very fine

Directions

Shred and chop the pork very fine.
Chop the beef suet and pork fat very fine.
Spread the chopped meat on a large dish and sprinkle with sage.
Grate in the nutmegs and add the salt and sweet herbs.
Shake the suet and pork fat over the mixture and mix everything well.
Pack the mixture tightly into a container and cover with paper.

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.

Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Sage + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together642 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).
Beef + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,495 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pork + nutmegtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,825 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).