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Salad

Tongue Salad

A salad made with boiled tongue, celery, mayonnaise, tomatoes, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Tongue Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cut the tops off the tomatoes without peeling them.

  2. Scoop out the juice and pulp and set aside to keep cool.

Make the filling

  1. Mix some of the firm pulp with the tongue and celery.

  2. Combine with some mayonnaise thinned with cream or lemon juice.

  3. Keep cool until serving time.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the tomato cups with the mixture.

  2. Place the filled tomato cups on lettuce.

  3. Add a tablespoon of mayonnaise on top of each tomato.

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. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 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
Provides the meaty bulk and savory flavor of the salad.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, crisp texture to the filling.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess that binds the filling and moistens it.
Fresh tomatoes
Serve as edible cups and add juiciness and acidity.

The step that matters

Keep the filling cool until serving time. Mayonnaise is an emulsion that can separate or become unsafe when warm, and the tomato cups release liquid over time, so chilling keeps the filling firm, fresh and safe to eat.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, lettuce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, lettuce. 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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