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Tongue, Baked

A slow-baked beef tongue finished with a buttered flour crust and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tongue, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and soak the tongue.

  2. Place the tongue in a dish just large enough for it.

  3. Dot the tongue with small pieces of butter.

  4. Cover the tongue with a crust made of flour and water.

Bake and shape

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until tender, about 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Remove the skin from the tongue.

  3. Secure the tongue to a board with skewers through the root and tip to hold it upright until cool.

  4. Trim the root.

Finish and serve

  1. If serving cold, glaze the tongue.

  2. Wrap a paper frill around it to hide any unsightliness.

  3. Garnish with parsley before serving.

  4. If serving hot, place the tongue on a hot dish with Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, or other vegetables.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish, becoming tender through slow baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the tongue during baking.
Flour
Forms a protective crust that holds in moisture while the tongue cooks.

The step that matters

Bake until fully tender. Tongue is a tough, muscular cut that only becomes tender after long, slow cooking. Pulling it early leaves it chewy, so it should be checked for tenderness before removing from the oven.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour. 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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