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Jellied Tongue

A preserved ox tongue set in a gelatinous beef stock with peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Jellied Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tongue

  1. Place the tongue in a large saucepan and cover it with water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Reduce the heat and simmer the tongue until tender, allowing 15 minutes per pound.

  4. Remove the tongue from the water.

  5. Skin the tongue.

  6. Curl the tongue up in a mold.

Make the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatin in ¼ cup cold water for 10 minutes.

  2. Combine the soaked gelatin, beef stock, and peppercorns in a saucepan.

  3. Stir the mixture until it boils.

  4. Strain the liquid through a flannel bag.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the strained liquid over the tongue in the mold.

  2. Let the mixture cool until firm.

  3. Turn the set tongue out onto a flat dish.

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

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

  2. White pepper + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Beef + white peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together616 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox tongue
Forms the main meat, becoming tender through long, gentle simmering.
Beef stock
Supplies the savoury liquid that becomes the flavourful jelly around the tongue.
Gelatine
Sets the strained stock into a firm jelly when it cools.

The step that matters

Simmer the tongue until tender. Gentle simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in the tongue. A hard boil toughens the meat and can make the surface cloudy, so the heat should be kept low.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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