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Pickled Ox-palates

Pickled ox palates are preserved in a seasoned brine and wine mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Pickled Ox-palates

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the palates

  1. Clean the palates with a brush in salt and water. Dry them with a cloth.

  2. Place the palates in a saucepan and cover with salt and water.

  3. Bring to a boil. Skim the surface.

  4. Add white peppercorns, cloves, mace, and bay leaves.

  5. Boil gently for about 5 hours until tender.

  6. Remove the palates. Peel the palates. Let the palates cool.

  7. Cut them into 1‑inch square pieces.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Strain the boiling liquid into another saucepan.

  2. Add white wine vinegar and white wine.

  3. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove any scum.

  4. Let the liquid cool.

Pack and store

  1. Place them in clean jars with additional bay leaves.

  2. Pour the liquid over the palates to cover completely.

  3. Top with salad oil.

  4. Seal the jars with bladder and leather. Store in a cool place.

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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Clove + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,715 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,329 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox palates
Main ingredient that becomes tender and forms the body of the pickle.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the palates and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
White wine
Adds body and mild acidity to the pickling liquid, rounding its flavour.
Salad oil
Forms a layer over the liquid that helps seal out air from the jars.
Cloves
Adds warm aromatic flavour to the cooking liquid and pickle.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the cooking liquid and pickle.

The step that matters

Boil gently for about 5 hours until tender. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the palates slowly break down into gelatin, giving tender meat and a silky texture. A hard boil toughens the outside and can break the pieces apart before the inside softens.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, white wine, vinegar. 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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