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Pickle Tongue Forced

A tongue stuffed with beef marrow, cream, egg yolks, breadcrumbs, pepper, and Madeira wine, then roasted or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickle Tongue Forced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongue

  1. Boil the tongue until half done, then peel it.

  2. Cut a piece from the center of the underside and place it in a marble mortar.

Make the stuffing

  1. Add beef marrow, cream, egg yolks, breadcrumbs, pepper, and Madeira wine.

  2. Pound the mixture well together.

Stuff and finish

  1. Fill the cavity in the tongue with the mixture and sew it up.

  2. Cover the tongue with veal caul.

  3. Roast until tender, or boil it.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Cream + madeira winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Beef + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef tongue
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked until tender.
Beef marrow
Adds richness and fat, keeping the stuffing moist and flavorful.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together and give it a smooth, set texture when cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help give the stuffing body.
Cream
Adds moisture and fat, softening the stuffing.

The step that matters

Pounding the stuffing well. Thoroughly pounding the marrow, yolks, cream and breadcrumbs together blends them into an even paste. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of dry crumb or greasy marrow that cook unevenly inside the tongue.

“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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