Name: Blut Wiirste — Black Sausages
Ingredients: fresh pork; bacon or solid fat from fresh pork; salt; pepper; allspice; powdered cloves; prepared sausage skins

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blut Wiirste — Black Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Stir salt into warm blood and strain it, stirring until cold.
Boil pieces of fresh pork in a little water with salt and solid fat until cooked.
Cut the cooked pork into small dice and mix it into the blood.
Season the mixture with salt, pepper, allspice, and a little powdered cloves.
Fill the prepared skins with the mixture, leaving space for expansion.
Boil the sausages for 30 minutes.
Once cooled, smoke them for 1-2 days or hang in a cool, dry place.
Serve cold.

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.

Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pork + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,515 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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