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Jellied Tongue

A chilled broth of chicken stock with herbs, set with gelatin, served with sliced boiled tongue, olives, and pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Jellied Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the chicken until it slips from the bones.

  2. Remove the chicken from the stock.

  3. Cool the stock and skim off the fat.

  4. Add the onion, celery, parsley, and bay leaf.

  5. Boil the stock slowly for an hour.

  6. Strain the stock.

  7. Return the stock to the fire.

  8. Add the white and crushed shell of an egg and bring the mixture to a quick boil.

  9. Remove the scum that rises.

Clarify and set

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of soaked gelatin to the broth.

  2. Pour the broth through cheesecloth.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble the mold

  1. In a large mold, arrange slices of cold boiled tongue, interspersing with sliced olives and diced pickles.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets into a jelly.
Soaked gelatine
Sets the clear broth so it holds its shape when chilled.
Chicken
Flavours the stock as it simmers and gives body to the broth.
Cold boiled tongue
Provides the main meat, arranged as slices in the jelly.

The step that matters

Removing the scum after the egg boil. Bringing the egg white and shell to a quick boil collects impurities into a scum. Removing it cleanly keeps the broth clear and the finished jelly bright rather than cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, parsley, pepper, olive):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, parsley, pepper, olive. 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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