Name: Sausage Meat
Ingredients: 15 pounds of meat; 1 cup coarse sea salt; 4 tablespoons black pepper; 4 tablespoons dried thyme

Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sausage Meat

Ingredients

15 pounds of meat
1 cup coarse sea salt
4 tablespoons black pepper
4 tablespoons dried thyme

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the meat, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and dried thyme.
Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well incorporated.

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 + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Meat + thymetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,008 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

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