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Pickled Corned Lambs' Tongues

Pickled lamb tongues preserved in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Corned Lambs' Tongues

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tongues

  1. Boil the tongues until a fork easily pierces them.

  2. Peel the tongues.

Pickle and serve

  1. In a bowl, combine the vinegar, water, and spices.

  2. Add the peeled tongues to the mixture.

  3. Let the tongues sit for 24 hours before serving.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lamb + allspicetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Lamb + clovetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together567 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned lambs' tongues
Main protein; boiling makes them tender enough for a fork to pierce and easy to peel.
Cold vinegar
Acidity that flavours the brine and helps preserve the tongues during pickling.
Whole peppercorns
Aromatic spice that adds sharp, warm flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole allspice
Aromatic spice that adds warm, fragrant flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole cloves
Strong aromatic spice that adds warm, pungent flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Let the tongues sit for 24 hours. The tongues need time in the acidic, spiced liquid for the flavour to penetrate the meat. Serving early leaves them mild and under-seasoned, since the brine works slowly through the tissue.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, vinegar, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, vinegar, allspice. 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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