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Bologna Sausage

A preserved beef sausage with pork fat, spices, and water, smoked and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Bologna Sausage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the preserved beef and fresh beef to about bean size.

  2. Add 8 pounds of fat pork for every 100 pounds of beef and chop together to the required fineness. While chopping, gradually add 20 to 30 pounds of water for every 100 pounds of meat.

  3. Season with 10 ounces of black pepper, 5 ounces of ground cloves, and 2 ounces of coriander seed.

  4. Let the mixture stand in a cool room overnight before stuffing.

Stuff and smoke

  1. Stuff tightly into beef rounds or middles.

  2. Smoke lightly for about 40 minutes or until the casings are shrunk.

Cook and dry

  1. Cook in hot water until the sausage floats, then drop them into cold water for a few minutes.

  2. Hang up the sausages to dry.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Clove + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Preserved beef
Cured meat gives the sausage its pink colour and characteristic cured flavour.
Fresh beef
Adds fresh meat flavour and balances the cured beef in the mixture.
Fat pork
Supplies fat that keeps the sausage juicy and gives a tender texture when cooked.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that seasons the meat throughout.
Ground cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour that defines the sausage's character.
Coriander seed
Adds citrusy, aromatic notes that complement the spices and meat.

The step that matters

Cook in hot water until the sausage floats. Cooking in hot water sets the meat proteins and firms the sausage so it holds its shape. Stopping when it floats avoids overcooking, which would toughen and dry the meat, and the cold-water dip stops further cooking.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, meat, pepper, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, meat, pepper, clove. 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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