Skip to main content
Main

Tongue with Olives

A Romanian dish of boiled tongue served in olive sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tongue with Olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongue

  1. Boil the tongue with the vegetables.

  2. When the tongue is almost done, remove from the broth, clean, and cut into finger-thick slices.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the finely chopped onion in oil until softened, then add tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, juniper berries, salt and a cup of the tongue-boiling liquid.

  2. Defat the liquid, then add olives that were well washed and previously kept in warm water for 2-3 hours, and the tongue slices.

  3. Cover and let boil until done.

Serve

  1. Serve warm or cold, garnished with chopped parsley and a few lemon slices.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

868Calories
56 gProtein
57 gFat
32 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 14 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Vegetable1 tbsp (14g)120
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Olive1 large (4g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Tongue
Is the main protein; boiling makes it tender enough to slice and then simmer in the sauce.
Olives
Add a salty, tangy flavour that balances the sweet and acidic tomato sauce.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, forming the base of the sauce.
Tomato sauce
Adds body, colour and acidity to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich, savoury sauce.

The step that matters

Defat the liquid before adding the olives and tongue. Fat left on the cooking liquid can make the sauce greasy and heavy on the palate. Skimming it first leaves a cleaner, lighter sauce that clings to the tongue slices.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, olive, onion, tomato, sauce, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, olive, onion, tomato, sauce, vinegar, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes