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Tongue, with Aspic Jelly

A cooked tongue set in a clarified gelatin aspic with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tongue, with Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tongue

  1. Boil the tongue until cooked.

  2. Roll the tongue or place it on a board to cool completely.

Make the aspic

  1. In a stewpan, combine the cooking liquid, thyme, shallots, bay leaf, mace, cloves, and gelatine.

  2. Stir until the gelatine dissolves.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool.

  4. Whisk the egg whites with cold water and tarragon vinegar.

  5. Stir the whisked mixture into the cooled liquid.

  6. Heat the mixture until very hot.

  7. Let the mixture boil gently for 15 minutes without stirring.

  8. Remove the mixture from heat and let it sit for 10 minutes to settle.

  9. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag until clear.

Glaze and serve

  1. Glaze the tongue.

  2. Place the glazed tongue on a dish.

  3. Garnish with jelly cut into cubes.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Thyme + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Tongue
Is the main meat, cooked whole and then glazed with the aspic.
Gelatine
Sets the cooking liquid into a firm, clear jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Collect fine sediment as they heat, which clarifies the liquid into a clear aspic.
Cooking liquid
Provides the savoury meat flavour and body of the aspic.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture boil gently without stirring. Stirring breaks up the egg white raft that traps impurities, leaving the aspic cloudy. Gentle heat lets the raft form and clarify the liquid before straining through a jelly bag.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, shallot, clove, egg, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, shallot, clove, egg, tarragon, vinegar. 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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