Name: Potato Sausages
Ingredients: 1 cup mashed potatoes; 1½ teaspoons salt; 1 cup ground nuts, fish, or meat; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 egg, well beaten; Salt pork, bacon, or other fat for greasing

Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Potato Sausages

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Mix the mashed potatoes with salt, ground nuts, fish, or meat, and pepper.
Add the beaten egg and combine well.
Form the mixture into small cakes or sausages.
Roll each sausage in flour and place in a greased pan.

Bake

Top each sausage with a small piece of fat or salt pork.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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.

Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + nutstop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together54 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Nuts + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together67 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 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

Mashed potatoes: Provides the bulk and soft body that holds the sausage shape together.
Egg: Binds the mixture so the sausages hold together when formed and baked.
Ground nuts, fish, or meat: Supplies the protein and savory flavour that make up the filling.