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Boiled Beef Tongue

A boiled beef tongue seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Boiled Beef Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the tongue

  1. Wash the tongue and place it in a pot, covering it with water.

  2. Add the salt and red pepper, then keep the tongue covered with water as it evaporates.

  3. Cook until the tongue can be easily pierced with a fork.

  4. Remove the tongue and peel off the skin if serving soon; otherwise, leave the skin on for storage.

Alternative preparations

  1. If using salt tongues, soak them overnight and omit the salt when boiling.

  2. For a different preparation, peel the tongue and place it in a saucepan with 1 cup of water, ½ cup of vinegar, and 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Cook until the liquid evaporates.

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. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Beef + vinegartop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,895 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tongue
Is the main cut, becoming tender as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps draw out moisture and firm its texture during the long cook.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the sweet, peeled tongue in the alternative method.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar in the alternative method.

The step that matters

Keep the tongue fully covered with water. As water evaporates during the long simmer, any exposed meat can dry out and toughen, so the tongue must stay submerged until it is tender enough to pierce easily.

“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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