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Spiced Tongue

A simmered beef tongue cooked with spices, stock, and aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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 ↓

Spiced Tongue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tongue

  1. Boil the green beef tongue for 2 hours or until soft.

  2. Remove the skin from the tongue.

Make the braise

  1. In a pan, cream together the flour and butter until slightly browned.

  2. Add the salt and pepper, then the tongue and stock.

  3. Add the cloves, allspice, bay leaves, and onion.

  4. Let the mixture simmer on the back of the stove for 3 to 4 hours.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

Green beef tongue
Is the main cut that becomes tender and meaty during long cooking.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy when browned with butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the flour brown for flavour.
Stock
Provides the cooking liquid that keeps the tongue moist while it simmers.
Onion
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering for 3 to 4 hours. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the tough connective tissue in the tongue. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and make the liquid cloudy, so keep it at a low, steady simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, butter, pepper, clove, allspice):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, butter, pepper, clove, allspice. 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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