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Potted Tongue

A preserved tongue mixture baked with butter, spices, anchovies, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted 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 the tongue

  1. Remove the hard outside and gristly parts from the tongue, then chop it finely.

  2. Combine the chopped tongue with the roast beef or mutton, and pound them together with the butter, cayenne, and a pinch of either cloves or nutmeg.

  3. Add salt if necessary, then press the mixture into pots.

  4. Melt some clarified butter and pour it over the top of the meat.

Bake and set

  1. In a jar, combine the finely chopped meat with water, salt, pepper, allspice, and ground cloves.

  2. Add the anchovies, cover the jar, and place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  3. After baking, pound the mixture in a mortar.

  4. Press the mixture into jars.

  5. Clarify more butter and pour it over the top of the meat.

  6. Set aside to cool.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tongue
Forms the main body of the potted meat, giving it its bulk and savoury meaty flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, and the clarified layer on top seals the meat from air.
Roast beef or mutton
Adds more meaty flavour and body, blending into the tongue for a smoother texture.
Anchovies
Contribute a deep savoury, salty note that rounds out the meat flavours.

The step that matters

Baking and pounding the mixture. Slow baking in a covered jar cooks the meat gently in its own moisture, keeping it tender. Pounding while still warm breaks down the fibres so the mixture blends into a smooth, spreadable paste.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, beef, allspice, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, beef, allspice, clove. 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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