Why it works: Tomato and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,065 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Salmi of Tongue with Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the cooked tongue neatly.
Make the sauce
Heat the remaining gravy in a saucepan.
Add ½ cup of liquor from canned tomatoes to the gravy.
If the sauce is too thin, thicken it with a little browned flour.
Simmer
Once boiling, add the pieces of tongue and let them simmer for about 15 minutes.
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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Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked tongue
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender while simmering in the sauce.
- Tomato liquor
- Adds acidity and tomato flavour to the sauce.
- Gravy
- Forms the savoury liquid base that the tongue simmers in.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty note when used.
The step that matters
Simmering the tongue. Once the sauce boils, the tongue should simmer gently rather than boil hard. Vigorous boiling can toughen the meat and make the sauce reduce unevenly.
“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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