Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Stewed Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Dredge the bacon fillets with parsley, salt, pepper, and allspice.
Lard the tongue with the bacon fillets.
In a saucepan, combine sliced bacon, parsley, thyme, garlic, cloves, carrots, onions, salt, and pepper.
Place the tongue on top of the mixture.
Wet with ⅓ cup of white wine and ⅓ cup of broth.
Simmer on moderate heat for about 5 hours, keeping it covered.
Serve the tongue on a dish and strain the sauce over it.
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.
-
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,077 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, pepper, allspice, thyme, garlic, clove, carrot):
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, pepper, allspice, thyme, garlic, clove, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Carrot Soup134 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes