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Braised Tongue

Braised tongue is a slow‑cooked beef tongue simmered with vegetables and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Braised Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tongue

  1. Place the tongue in cold water and boil gently for three hours.

  2. Remove the tongue from the kettle and skin it.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, brown the butter, then add the flour and mix until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the water, then stir in the seasoning, potato, onion, carrot, bay leaves, and celery.

Braise and serve

  1. Place the tongue back in the pan, cover, and simmer for one hour, ensuring it does not boil dry.

  2. Before serving, season the dressing with Worcestershire sauce.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beef tongue
Is the main meat that becomes tender through long, gentle cooking.
Flour
Thickens the butter and water into a smooth, body-giving sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the base of the sauce and carries flavour.
Potato
Softens into the sauce and adds body to the dressing.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth to the finished dressing.

The step that matters

Keep the tongue from boiling dry during the braise. Once the liquid evaporates, the meat can toughen and scorch. Keeping it covered and at a gentle simmer holds moisture while collagen slowly softens into tender meat.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, flour, butter, sauce, potato, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, flour, butter, sauce, potato, pepper. 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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