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Devilled Beef Tongue

Devilled Beef Tongue is a savory dish of minced beef tongue with mushrooms, shallots, parsley, brown sauce, spices, eggs, and truffles, baked in paper cases.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Devilled Beef Tongue

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. In a stew pan, melt the butter and fry the minced beef tongue slightly.

  2. Add the mushrooms, shallots, parsley, brown sauce, salt, pepper, mace, and cayenne; mix well.

  3. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.

  4. In a small stew pan, combine the minced mixture with the egg yolks and chopped truffles.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture gently.

  2. Fill paper cases with the preparation and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 10 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately after baking.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tongue
Forms the main body of the filling, giving it a meaty texture once cooked.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and help the filling rise and set in the oven.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and a smooth, set texture as they cook.
Butter
Fat that enriches the flavour and helps lightly fry the tongue.
Truffles
Add a strong, earthy aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Stiff whites hold air that makes the filling light and puffed; vigorous stirring deflates them, so the bake gives a dense result instead of a risen one.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, mushroom, shallot, parsley, sauce, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, mushroom, shallot, parsley, sauce, pepper. 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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