Name: Large Smoked Sausages or Polonies
Ingredients: fat and lean pork; coarse sea salt; saltpetre; black pepper; allspice

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Large Smoked Sausages or Polonies

Ingredients

Directions

Season the pork with coarse sea salt, saltpetre, black pepper, and allspice, all in fine powder.
Rub the seasoning into the meat thoroughly.
On the sixth day, cut the meat into small pieces.

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.

Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + allspicetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,194 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).