Why it works: Sage and pepper 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 ↓
Sausage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Line a small basin with half the suet pastry.
Add half the sausage, then add pepper, salt, and sage.
Fry the onion in the butter, then add flour and stock; boil for 2 minutes and allow to cool.
Pour the mixture into the basin, add the remaining sausage, and cover with the rest of the pastry.
Cover the pudding and steam it for 1 hour.
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.
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Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,628 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,312 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet pastry
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and holds it together while steaming.
- Sausage
- Supplies the main meaty flavour and bulk of the filling.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and aroma when fried gently in the butter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the flavour of the fried onion.
- Stock
- Adds moisture so the filling stays tender as it steams.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before filling. Cooling the boiled onion and stock mixture before pouring it in keeps hot liquid from softening the suet pastry before the pudding is steamed.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, pepper, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sage, pepper, butter. 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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