Name: Tongue Salad
Ingredients: 1 tongue, boiled and chopped fine; 1 cup celery, chopped; 1 lemon, chopped, adding juice; 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced; 2 tablespoons mustard; 1 tablespoon oil; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon red pepper

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Tongue Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the tongue until tender, then chop it finely.
Chop the celery to match the amount of chopped tongue.
Chop the lemon and add its juice.
Slice the hard boiled eggs.

Dress and serve

In a bowl, mix the mustard, oil, salt, and red pepper to make the dressing.
Pour the dressing over the tongue, celery, lemon, and eggs, and mix well.

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.

Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 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: Forms the main body of the salad and provides its meaty texture.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, watery crunch against the soft meat.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the meat.
Hard boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavor and helps emulsify the oil into the dressing.