Why it works: Onion and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓
Roasted Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the smoked tongue in cold water overnight.
Parboil the tongue in warm water with the slice of bacon, sweet herbs, and onions until nearly done.
Remove the tongue, drain it, and lard the upper side with large slices of bacon and the underside with small pieces.
Roast and serve
Place the tongue on a spit and roast for 30 minutes.
Serve with a pungent sauce (Sauce Piquante).
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.
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Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Smoked tongue
- Provides the main meat and its smoky, cured flavour.
- Bacon
- Larding adds fat that keeps the lean tongue moist during roasting.
- Onions
- Stuck with cloves, they add aromatic sweetness to the parboiling liquid.
The step that matters
Parboil until nearly done. Parboiling softens the tough, dense muscle before roasting. Stopping at nearly done leaves room for the roast to finish the texture without drying the meat.
“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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