Skip to main content
Main

Sausages with Tomatoes

A stew of sausages simmered in tomatoes and brown gravy, served with mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sausages with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the sausages

  1. Separate the sausages and place them in boiling water.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Make the tomatoes

  1. In a pan, combine the sliced tomatoes, brown gravy, chopped onion, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Arrange the sausages in the center of a dish and pour the stewed tomatoes over them.

  2. Garnish with parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.

Bread and fry

  1. Dust the sausages with flour.

  2. Dip them in egg wash.

  3. Coat with bread crumbs.

  4. Fry in deep hot fat until golden yellow.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sausages
Form the main body of the dish and release savory fat as they cook.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, and turn soft and slightly sweet as they simmer.
Brown gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth that thickens the stewed tomato sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the acidity of the tomatoes.
Onion
Contributes aroma and gentle sweetness once softened in the sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the tomato mixture at a gentle simmer for the full hour. A hard boil breaks the tomatoes down unevenly and can scorch the gravy on the pan bottom. Slow, steady heat softens the tomatoes and lets the flavors blend into a smooth sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, butter, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, butter, parsley. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes