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To Stew Tongue

Boiled tongue stewed in a seasoned gravy with soy sauce, mushroom ketchup, Cayenne pepper, pounded cloves, and salt, served with truffles, morels, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Stew Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the tongue

  1. Salt the tongue with saltpetre and coarse sea salt for one week, turning it daily.

  2. Boil the tongue until tender enough to peel.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew the tongue in a moderately strong gravy.

  2. Season the gravy with soy sauce, mushroom ketchup, Cayenne pepper, pounded cloves, and additional salt if necessary.

  3. Serve with truffles, morels, and mushrooms.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tongue
Main protein; curing and long stewing make it firm yet tender enough to peel and eat.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping it keep its pink colour and adding a characteristic cured flavour.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury depth and salty umami to the gravy.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the gravy.
Truffles
Add a rich, earthy aroma that complements the stewed meat.
Morels
Add a deep, earthy flavour and a meaty texture to the dish.

The step that matters

Boil the tongue until tender enough to peel. Undercooked tongue keeps its tough outer skin and firm texture, while gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue so the meat becomes tender. Stopping too early leaves it hard to peel and chewy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, mushroom, ketchup, pepper, truffle):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, mushroom, ketchup, pepper, truffle. 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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