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Potted Neats’ Tongues

A preserved meat dish of boiled neats' tongues simmered in molasses and spices, then potted and cured.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Potted Neats’ Tongues

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tongues

  1. Boil the tongues until just underdone.

  2. Remove the peel, root, gullet, and 2.5 inches from the tip.

  3. Slice the tongues into 1-inch thick pieces.

Cure and simmer

  1. Layer the sliced tongues in a jar with molasses, Jamaica pepper, garlic, shallots, bay leaves, laurel leaves, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes.

  3. Pour the hot mixture into the jar and cover tightly with paper.

  4. Let the jar sit for a week.

Make the potted meat

  1. Wash the meat quickly with water and vinegar.

  2. Cut the meat into dice.

  3. Pound the diced meat in a mortar with fresh butter until smooth and thick.

  4. Fill clean, dry pots and jars with the mixture.

  5. Press the meat down well.

  6. Cover with clarified butter.

  7. Tie white paper over the top.

Bake

  1. Place the filled pots and jars in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours.

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. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + laureltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Neats' tongues
Provides the main meat, which is cured, diced, and pounded into a smooth paste.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and draws out moisture during curing, helping it keep.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cured meat.
Fresh butter
Adds fat that makes the pounded meat smooth, rich, and spreadable.
Bay leaves
Adds a herbal aroma to the cure.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich meat.

The step that matters

Baking in a cool oven. Low, gentle heat at 300°F for two hours softens the meat and lets the butter set without boiling off moisture or making the meat tough. A hotter oven would dry and toughen the tongue.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, pepper, garlic, laurel, vinegar, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, pepper, garlic, laurel, vinegar, butter. 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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