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Beef Tongue

A boiled and stewed beef tongue seasoned with salt, spices, and savory sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beef Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongue

  1. If the tongue is dried and smoked, soak it overnight.

  2. If the tongue is pickled, soak it for a few hours.

  3. Salt the tongue with saltpetre and common salt for a week, turning daily.

  4. Place the tongue in a pot of cold water and heat over low heat for 1-2 hours until it begins to boil.

  5. Simmer the tongue for 3-4 hours, depending on its size, until tender.

  6. Boil the tongue until tender enough to peel.

  7. Peel the tongue.

  8. Trim the root.

Glaze and dress

  1. Rub the skinned tongue with egg yolk.

  2. Sprinkle the tongue with breadcrumbs and minced herbs.

  3. Baste the tongue with butter.

  4. Brown the tongue.

  5. Glaze the tongue.

  6. Garnish the root with a paper frill.

  7. Add a flower on top.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew the tongue in a strong gravy, seasoning with soy, mushroom ketchup, cayenne, cloves, and salt as needed.

  2. Serve with stewed truffles, morels, and mushrooms.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 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

Beef tongue
Is the main meat, becoming tender through long simmering and stewing.
Saltpetre
Helps cure the tongue, giving it a pink colour and a cured flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown when basted over the tongue.
Gravy
Provides the liquid in which the tongue is stewed, adding moisture and savoury depth.
Truffles
Adds a rich, earthy aroma to the stewed accompaniment.
Morels
Adds a deep, earthy flavour and meaty texture to the stewed accompaniment.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender. Tongue is a tough, muscular cut that needs long, gentle simmering so collagen breaks down. Boiling too hard can toughen the outer layers and leave the meat stringy, so keep the liquid at a gentle simmer and test for tenderness before peeling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, pepper, clove, allspice, butter, sauce):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper, clove, allspice, butter, sauce. 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 beef tongue recipes

Boiled 58Pickled 14Baked 13Braised 13Roasted 12Smoked 12 See all 42 →

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