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Ox-tongue

A braised ox tongue cooked with carrot, onion, celery, herbs, cloves, mace, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ox-tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongue

  1. Scald the ox tongue in boiling water for about 10 minutes.

  2. Immerse it in cold water, then remove the root and excess fat.

Braise

  1. Place the tongue in a large pot with carrot, onion, celery, bouquet garni, cloves, and mace.

  2. Add brandy and enough broth to cover the tongue.

  3. Braise gently on low heat for 2.5 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Once done, remove the tongue from the pot, trim it, and serve.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox tongue
Its dense muscle becomes tender and silky only after long, gentle moist cooking.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth to the braising liquid as its alcohol carries flavour compounds from the herbs and spices.
Broth or stock
Provides the cooking liquid that gently transfers heat and seasoning into the tongue.
Carrot, onion, and celery
Release sweetness and savoury flavour into the braising liquid, underpinning the broth.

The step that matters

Braising on low heat. Simmering gently keeps the liquid below a vigorous boil, so tough connective tissue slowly breaks down into gelatin while the meat stays moist rather than stringy or dry.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, celery, clove, brandy):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, celery, clove, brandy. 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.

More ox tongue recipes

Potted 20Braised 12Boiled 11Roasted 4Pickled 3Stewed 3 See all 10 →

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