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Mutton Sausages

A sausage made from minced cold mutton, suet, anchovies, oysters, spices, eggs, and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mutton Sausages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mince the cold mutton, suet, anchovies, and oysters very finely.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper, coarse sea salt, and mace or nutmeg.

  3. Add the well-beaten eggs and breadcrumbs to the mixture.

  4. Put the mixture in a jar and press it down.

Store and cook

  1. Keep in a dry, cool place.

  2. When ready to use, roll into cakes and fry until brown.

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. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mutton + oystertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Forms the main body of the sausage and gives it its meaty flavour.
Suet
Adds fat, which keeps the mixture moist and rich when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when rolled and fried.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together as a binder.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour that deepens the taste of the mixture.

The step that matters

Mincing the mutton, suet, anchovies, and oysters very finely. Fine mincing spreads the fat and seasonings evenly through the mixture, so the cakes cook uniformly and hold together rather than crumbling or greasy in patches.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, oyster, pepper, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, oyster, pepper, egg. 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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