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
Chop the preserved and fresh beef very fine, adding 20 pounds of water while chopping.
Cut the fat pork into very small squares and mix with the chopped beef.
Season with black pepper, ground coriander, and cloves; mix well and let stand in a cool place overnight.
Stuff and smoke
The next day, mix again and add 10 more pounds of water.
Stuff the mixture into beef rounds or middles tightly.
Hang up to dry for a few minutes, then smoke over a hot fire for 30 minutes or until the casings are dry.
Cook and finish
Cook in hot water until the sausages float, then place them in cold water briefly to shrink the casing and prevent wrinkling.
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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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Coriander + garlictop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,474 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,949 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Coriander + clovetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,221 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Preserved beef
- Supplies cured color and a firm, meaty texture through its salt and saltpeter.
- Fresh beef
- Adds fresh meat flavor and body alongside the preserved beef.
- Fat pork
- Adds fat that keeps the sausage moist and tender as it cooks.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp, aromatic heat that seasons the whole mixture.
- Ground coriander
- Adds citrusy, warm aroma to the seasoned meat.
The step that matters
Chopping the meat very fine and mixing in the water. Fine chopping and added water help the meat bind into an even emulsion, so the sausage stays juicy and holds together when stuffed and cooked.
Swap the garlic
The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, pepper, coriander, clove):
- Allspicefits better
- Cuminfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, pepper, coriander, 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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