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Brawn. a Very Nice Breakfast Dish.

A savory meat jelly made from sheep and bull tongues, cheek, pork, and cowheel simmered with spices and set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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 ↓

Brawn. a Very Nice Breakfast Dish.

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the tongues, bullock's tongue, bullock's cheek, salted pork, and cowheel in a saucepan with enough water to nearly cover the meat.

  2. Add pepper, salt, allspice, cloves, minced garlic, and chopped shallots.

  3. Boil slowly until the meat separates from the bones.

  4. Remove the meat, cut it into small squares, and discard the bones.

  5. Boil the stock rapidly until reduced to 1 quart, then skim off the fat.

Set and serve

  1. Mix the chopped meat into the stock.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate overnight.

  3. Unmold onto a dish and garnish with parsley.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cowheel
Its collagen-rich connective tissue dissolves into the stock, helping it set into a firm jelly.
Sheep's tongues
Contribute richly flavoured meat and gelatine-forming connective tissue to the stock.
Bullock's cheek
Adds dense, collagen-rich meat that breaks down into the stock and supports the jelly's body.
Salted pork
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat that enriches the stock.

The step that matters

Reducing the stock. The stock must be boiled down to the stated volume so its natural gelatine is concentrated enough to set firmly when chilled. Skimming off the fat keeps the jelly clear and prevents a greasy texture.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, meat, pepper, allspice, clove, shallot):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, meat, pepper, allspice, clove, shallot. 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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