Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Langue De Bceuf Piquee. — Neat's Tongue Larded.
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the root and gullet from the tongue and rub it well with coarse sea salt.
Hang the tongue to drain and wipe it the next day.
Let it sit in salt for one day.
Boil the tongue for half an hour, then blanch and remove the skin.
Roll fresh-cured fat bacon in a seasoning of pepper, salt, cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, parsley, knotted marjoram, chives, and minced garlic.
Lard the tongue all over, leaving a small space from the root to the tip.
Braise and glaze the tongue as usual.
After cooking, cut the tongue in two, except at the two extremities, and arrange it on a dish in the shape of a heart.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,979 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Nutmeg + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together687 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, parsley, marjoram, chive):
- Allspicefits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, parsley, marjoram, chive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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