Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓
How to Pickle Tongues
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pickle
Combine the salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and coarse sugar in a bowl.
Add cloves and allspice to taste.
Cure
Submerge the tongue in the pickle mixture.
Let it sit for two weeks to 20 days.
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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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,938 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salt for curing and seasoning, with larger crystals dissolving more slowly.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the salt and adds mild sweetness.
The step that matters
Submerge the tongue in the pickle mixture. The cure works by salt and other ingredients penetrating the meat from the outside in. If the tongue is not fully covered, parts of it cure unevenly and those areas are more open to spoilage.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, allspice):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, allspice. 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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