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Ox-tongue

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

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

  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 stewpan with carrot, onion, celery, herbs, cloves, and mace.

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

  3. Braise gently for 2.5 hours on a slow fire.

Serve

  1. Once done, remove the tongue from the braise, trim, 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
Is the main cut that becomes tender and rich during long, gentle braising.
Broth or stock
Provides the liquid that slowly cooks the tongue and gives the braise its savory body.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Onion
Contributes savory sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Gentle braising. Keeping the braise at a slow simmer rather than a hard boil lets the tough connective tissue in the tongue break down gradually, so the meat becomes tender instead of 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.

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