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Cold Tongue

A baked casserole of sliced cold tongue, noodles, mushrooms, milk, breadcrumbs, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cold Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold tongue into long, thin strips.

  2. Simmer the tongue strips in hot water for 5 minutes.

  3. Boil the noodles in enough milk to just cover them for 15 minutes, then drain.

  4. Butter a small baking tin and line it with a layer of noodles.

Layer and bake

  1. Add a layer of tongue strips and a layer of sliced mushrooms.

  2. Continue layering noodles, tongue, and mushrooms until all ingredients are used.

  3. Season with white pepper and a little coarse sea salt.

  4. Pour in the milk used to boil the noodles.

  5. Top with a thin layer of bread crumbs and a generous layer of grated cheese.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Broad nudels (homemade macaroni)
Forms the layers and bulk, absorbing the milk to give the casserole its body.
Cold tongue
Supplies the main meaty flavor and substance in every layer.
Milk
Soaks into the noodles during baking, keeping the casserole moist and tender.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Crisp up on top, adding a dry, golden, crunchy finish.

The step that matters

Boiling the noodles in milk. Milk scorches and boils over easily, and it can stick to the pan. Keeping the heat gentle and the milk just covering the noodles lets them cook evenly without burning. The milk is reused later, so its flavor and body matter.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, cheese, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, cheese, butter. 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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