Name: Roast Tongue
Ingredients: 1 fresh ox tongue; cloves; port wine sauce; currant jelly

Why it works: Port wine and currant work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Roast Tongue

Ingredients

1 fresh ox tongue
cloves
port wine sauce
currant jelly

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Stick the ox tongue with cloves.
Roast the tongue until cooked through.
Serve with port wine sauce and currant jelly.

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.

Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together914 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + curranttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,038 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Port wine + saucetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together424 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Clove + saucetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,089 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).