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Tongue Soup

A hearty soup made from a cold tongue, beef bones, vegetables, and rice, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tongue Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Simmer all ingredients gently for about 4 hours until the gravy is drawn from the meat.

  2. Strain the soup.

  3. Let it cool.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, skim off the fat.

  2. Add the kernels and soft parts of the tongue.

  3. Slice in a small amount of fresh carrot, turnip, and onion.

  4. Stew until the vegetables are tender.

  5. Serve with toasted bread.

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.

  1. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef bones
Releases gravy and body into the broth during long simmering.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch softens in the liquid.
Carrots
Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook down in the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and tender body to the soup.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat before serving. Fat that has solidified on the cooled broth should be removed; leaving it in makes the soup greasy and heavy on the palate. Skimming it cold is easier because the fat sets on the surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, carrot, turnip, parsnip, celery, rice):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, carrot, turnip, parsnip, celery, rice. 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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