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Sausage Meat

A pork sausage patty made with bread crumbs, herbs, and spices, fried until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Sausage Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mince the pork very fine.

  2. Add the bread crumbs and nutmeg.

  3. Rub the sage leaves very fine and add them along with the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

Form and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small cakes.

  2. Flour the cakes well and fry them in good dripping or butter.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Provides the fat and meat that make up the body and rich flavour of the cakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and fat, helping the cakes hold together and stay tender.
Marjoram
Adds a warm, aromatic herbal flavour that complements the pork.
Sage leaves
Contribute a savoury, aromatic flavour typical of sausage seasoning.

The step that matters

Flour the cakes well before frying. A thin, even flour coating helps the surface brown and crisp in the hot fat while sealing in juices. Skipping it can leave the cakes pale, greasy, or prone to sticking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, marjoram, bread, sage, lemon, thyme, pepper):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, marjoram, bread, sage, lemon, thyme, pepper. 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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