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Devilled Ox-tongue

A dish of minced ox‑tongue served on toasted French roll slices, topped with mushrooms and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Devilled Ox-tongue

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the topping

  1. In a bowl, combine minced ox-tongue, bacon fat, white pepper, cayenne, and chopped mushrooms.

Prepare the bread

  1. Toast the slices of French roll lightly on both sides.

  2. Dip the toasted slices in a mixture of claret and beaten egg.

  3. Sprinkle the slices with grated nutmeg and cayenne.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the tongue mixture thickly on each slice and place a button mushroom in the center.

  2. Coat with rich cream sauce and heat in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked ox-tongue
Forms the savory, meaty filling that gives the dish its body.
Bacon fat
Adds richness and moisture to the minced tongue filling.
French roll
Provides a toasted base that holds the filling and soaks up the egg mixture.
Beaten egg
Binds the claret mixture to the bread and helps it set when heated.
Rich cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness to the topping as it heats in the oven.

The step that matters

Toasting and dipping the bread. Toasting the slices lightly before dipping helps them keep their shape and resist sogginess, so the topping sits on a sturdy base.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mushroom, egg, nutmeg, cream, sauce):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, egg, nutmeg, cream, sauce. 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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