Name: Boiled Tongue and Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: one tablespoon of butter; half down; one tea- spoon of flour

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Tongue and Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

one tablespoon of butter
half down
one tea- spoon of flour

Directions

Cook the tongue

Boil a pickled tongue until well done, then peel.

Make the sauce

For the sauce, take one can of tomatoes, boil half down, then strain.
Rub together one tablespoon of butter, one teaspoon of flour, and a little salt.
Put these into the tomato, and let it come to a boil.

Serve

Then pour over the tongue and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

557Calories

13 gProtein

13 gFat

95 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 2 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102

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

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + teatop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together703 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Tea + flourtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together449 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pickled tongue (in the method): The main dish, cooked until well done so it becomes tender enough to peel.
Tomatoes (in the method): Provide the sauce base, and boiling half down concentrates their flavour and acidity.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the flour blend smoothly into the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.

The step that matters

Boiling the butter and flour into the tomato. Flour must be fully heated in the liquid to thicken evenly and lose its raw, floury taste. Rubbing it with butter first helps prevent lumps forming when it meets the hot tomato.

“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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Boiled Tongue and Tomato Sauce