Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
English Pickle for Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Make a brine by mixing saltpetre, brown sugar, coarse sea salt, and molasses in a large container. Add enough water to cover the tongues.
Place the tongues in the brine and let them sit in a crock for 10 days.
Cook and serve
Boil the tongues for 2 to 3 hours. Remove the skin. Serve cold.
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.
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and keeps its pink curing color.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the brine.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out and seasons the meat while preserving it.
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, deep flavor, and sweetness to the cure.
The step that matters
Keep the tongues fully covered in brine. Salt and curing agents only penetrate the meat where brine touches it. Any exposed part can spoil or cure unevenly over the 10 days, so the tongues must stay submerged.
“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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