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Devilled Beef Tongue

A dish of minced beef tongue served on toasted French rolls with mushrooms, claret, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Devilled Beef Tongue

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the remains of beef tongue with the fat.

  2. Season the minced tongue with plenty of white pepper and cayenne. Mix in chopped mushrooms.

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut French rolls into slices and toast them lightly on both sides.

  2. Dip the toasted slices in a mixture of claret and beaten egg.

  3. Sprinkle the slices with grated nutmeg and cayenne.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place a heap of the tongue mixture on top of each slice. Add a button mushroom in the center of each slice.

  2. Cover the slices with scalded cream.

  3. Warm the assembled dish in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  4. Serve quickly.

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

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + red winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 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

Beef tongue
Forms the main meaty filling, giving the dish its body and savory flavor.
French rolls
Provide the absorbent base that holds the filling and soaks up the egg and wine mixture.
Beaten egg
Binds the soaked bread and sets when warmed, helping hold the slices together.
Claret (red wine)
Adds acidity and aroma, moistening the toasted bread and deepening the flavor.
Chopped mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savory flavor to the tongue filling.
Scalded cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth, moist topping as it warms.

The step that matters

Warm the assembled dish in the oven. Heat must be enough to set the egg and warm the filling without drying the bread. Serving quickly keeps the toast from going soggy and the cream from separating.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, mushroom, red wine, egg, nutmeg, cream):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, mushroom, red wine, egg, nutmeg, cream. 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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