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Calf's Tongue, Tomato Sauce

A boiled calf's tongue served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,768 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Calf's Tongue, Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongues

  1. Soak the tongues in warm water for 1 hour.

  2. Drain the tongues.

  3. Parboil the tongues for 10 minutes.

  4. Cool the tongues.

  5. Pare the tongues.

  6. Scrape off the white skin from the tongues.

  7. Wash the tongues well.

Cook

  1. Dilute the flour in water in a stewpan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the tongues, salt, vinegar, parsley, and onion.

  4. Cover the pot.

  5. Cook slowly for about 1.5 hours.

  6. Drain the tongues on a cloth.

Serve

  1. Split the tongues in two.

  2. Dish up the tongues.

  3. Pour tomato sauce over the tongues.

  4. Serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,398 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Clove + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' tongues
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long slow cooking.
Flour
Diluted in the cooking liquid to thicken it slightly and give body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the richness of the meat.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savour to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Cook slowly once the mixture boils. Tongue is a tough muscle rich in connective tissue. Gentle simmering under a lid breaks that tissue down slowly; a hard boil toughens the meat and can leave it stringy.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, vinegar, parsley, onion, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, vinegar, parsley, onion, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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