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Calves’ Tongues, Cold, ‘à LA Macédoine’

Cold pickled calves' tongues served with a vegetable macédoine and aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Calves’ Tongues, Cold, ‘à LA Macédoine’

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongues

  1. Boil the pickled calves' tongues in water until cooked.

  2. Cool the tongues between two dishes, then remove the skin.

  3. Trim the thick end and cut straight on each side, splitting them lengthwise.

  4. Glaze the tongues with a paste brush and apply a thin layer of half-set aspic jelly.

Assemble and serve

  1. Prepare a macédoine of blanched vegetables: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, French beans, spruce asparagus, and peas, seasoned as a salad.

  2. Arrange the vegetable macédoine in pyramids around the tongue halves, standing upright with the pointed ends up.

  3. Surround with aspic jelly and serve with cold ravigote or tartar sauce.

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. Cauliflower + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beans + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together292 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  5. Potato + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' tongues
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender when boiled until fully cooked.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear glaze and surround that gives the dish a smooth, cold finish.
Brussels sprouts
Add firm texture and a slightly bitter, cabbage-like flavour to the vegetable macédoine.
Cauliflower florets
Add firm, mild texture to the blanched vegetable macédoine.
Green peas
Add sweetness and bright colour to the vegetable macédoine.

The step that matters

Cooling and glazing the tongues. The tongues must cool fully before the skin is removed, and the aspic must be half-set so it spreads as a thin, even layer rather than running off or pooling. Too warm or too liquid aspic will not hold on the meat.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, carrot, potato, beans, asparagus, peas, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, carrot, potato, beans, asparagus, peas, pepper. 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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