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 ↓
Pork Sausages
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the pork finely.
For every 10 pounds of meat, mix in 4 ounces of coarse sea salt and 1 ounce of ground black pepper.
Add 1 teaspoon of dried sage or lemon thyme, 1 teaspoon of ground allspice, and 1 teaspoon of ground cloves if desired.
Mix the seasoning thoroughly into the meat.
Pack the mixture into stone pots or casings.
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.
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together331 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together731 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the sage
The recipe marks sage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, allspice, clove):
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Sagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, allspice, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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