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Tongue with Raisins

A boiled tongue simmered with carrots, onions, bay leaves, cloves, and raisins, served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Tongue with Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer

  1. Place the fresh tongue in boiling water.

  2. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the tongue.

  4. Skin the tongue.

Braise

  1. Return the tongue to the kettle.

  2. Add the chopped carrot, onions, bay leaves, cloves, and raisins.

  3. Add enough water to just cover the tongue.

  4. Cover the kettle.

  5. Boil for 2 hours.

  6. Add salt 1 hour before the tongue is done.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with the tongue in the center, garnished with the raisins.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Carrot + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Tongue
Main protein; slow simmering over two stages turns its tough muscle tender.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a soft, plump texture to the cooking liquid and garnish.
Onions
Release sugars and aromatic flavour into the cooking liquid as they soften.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boil hard. Vigorous boiling toughens meat proteins and can break the tongue apart. Gentle simmering lets connective tissue slowly break down into tender, moist meat.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, clove):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, clove. 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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