Name: Fresh Tongue
Ingredients: 1 fine fresh tongue; 2 ounces butter; 1 cup currant jelly; ½ pound citron, chopped; ¼ pound raisins; ½ pound blanched almonds, chopped; ¼ pound dried currants; 1 large glass port wine; dash of vinegar

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fresh Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil and skin the fresh tongue.

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add currant jelly, citron, raisins, blanched almonds, dried currants, and port wine.
Remove from heat and stir in a dash of vinegar.

Serve

Place the tongue on a deep meat dish and pour the sauce over it.

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.

Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together598 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh tongue: Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the sauce as its base.
Currant jelly: Adds sweetness and body, thickening the sauce as it melts into the liquid.
Port wine: Adds depth and aroma, and its acidity balances the sweetness of the jelly.
Blanched almonds: Contribute richness and a crunchy texture to the sauce.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the sauce.

“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.