Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓
Blood Sausage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Boil the pork and pig skins until tender.
Chop the pork finely and cut the skins into small squares.
Mix the chopped pork, pig skins, and hog's blood together.
Season the mixture with black pepper, cloves, allspice, and marjoram.
Stuff and cook
Fill beef middles loosely with the mixture.
Scald the sausages in water for 1 hour, keeping it below boiling point.
Prick the sausages occasionally with a thin wire until the blood stops flowing.
Dry and smoke
Hang the sausages to dry for 24 hours.
Smoke the sausages lightly.
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.
-
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together342 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,075 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
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
What each ingredient does
- Fresh cheek or neck pork
- Provides the meat that gives the sausage its body and savory flavor.
- Pig skins
- Adds gelatin-rich texture that helps the filling hold together once cooled.
- Hog's blood
- Binds the filling and gives blood sausage its dark color and rich, mineral flavor.
- Black pepper
- Adds sharp, aromatic heat that balances the richness of the blood and fat.
- Cloves
- Contributes warm, strong aromatic flavor to the seasoned filling.
- Allspice
- Adds warm, complex spiced aroma that rounds out the seasoning.
The step that matters
Scald below boiling point. Water kept just under a boil cooks the filling gently and sets it without bursting the casing or making the blood grainy and tough.
Swap the marjoram
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, clove, allspice):
- Thymefits about as well
- Marjoramthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, clove, allspice. 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.
You might also like
Pork Cake107 recipes
Roast Pork82 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.