Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Boiled Ox Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the tongue in cold water for several hours to extract the salt.
Cook and peel
Place the tongue in a pan of cold water and simmer gently for 2 to 4 hours, until tender when tested with a skewer.
Remove the tongue and plunge it into cold water for 1 minute.
Remove the skin and secure the tongue to a board with forks.
Glaze and serve
When cold, brush with warm glaze and decorate with butter.
Arrange a frill over the root of the tongue and garnish with parsley.
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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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ox tongue
- Is the main meat; slow simmering softens its connective tissue until it is tender.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth finish to the glazed surface.
The step that matters
Simmer gently until tender. A gentle simmer lets the tough connective tissue in the tongue break down slowly. A hard, rolling boil toughens the outer meat and can break the tongue apart, so keep the liquid barely moving and test with a skewer.
“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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