Skip to main content
Main

Tongue of Beef, with Fine Herbs

Cold boiled beef tongue served with a herb and vinegar dressing and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Tongue of Beef, with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. Slice the cold boiled tongue into very thin slices.

  2. In a serving plate, combine broth, vinegar, parsley, leeks, thyme, and garlic, all chopped very fine.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then add bread crumbs and moisten with oil.

Assemble and heat

  1. Layer the tongue slices on top and cover with the same dressing, seasoning as before.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs and drizzle with oil on top.

  3. Place the plate on a stove over low heat and simmer gently until it adheres slightly to the bottom.

  4. Before serving, pour a spoonful of broth over the dish.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled tongue
Provides the main body of the dish as thinly sliced, tender meat.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquids and help bind the dressing so it clings to the slices.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and balances the oil.
Oil
Adds fat and moisture, carrying flavour through the bread crumbs.
Broth
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the dressing and the finished dish.

The step that matters

Simmering gently over low heat. Low, gentle heat lets the bread crumbs and dressing set lightly to the plate without scorching or drying. Too much heat can burn the crumbs and toughen the meat.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, parsley, leek, thyme, garlic, pepper, bread):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Winter savorybetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, parsley, leek, thyme, garlic, pepper, bread. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes