Can We Talk "Beef Tongue"?

Howdy gang...been gone for awhile and just back...hope I didn't miss anything.

I was over at my local meat market today and did something out of the ordinary....I bought a tongue. Don't know why I did, just did. Now I gotta cook it. The lady at the market said that you don't have to do much and it is pretty good eating. Well.......we'll see.

Anyway, I need some pointers on how to handle it and what to do with it.

You guys have saved me many times...I just know there is a tongue recipe here somewhere.

Did she prepare the tongue for you? Soaking, trimming, and skinning? If so, put in a pot of boiling water with half a sliced lemon, a sliced onion, a couple of bay leaves, tablespoon salt, 8 crushed peppercorns, and 4 cloves. Cook for about 3 hours at a simmer, and let cool in the broth. Serve cold, sliced at an angle.

Or, follow the above, reserving the liquid, and put it in a roasting pan with diced carrots, potatoes, celery, onion, and turnip (about 3 pounds total veggies). Place tongue on top and add 3 cups liquid. Cover tightly with foil and bake 2 hours at 300°. Meanwhile, mix 3 TB flour with 3 TB softened butter. When cooking is done, add butter little by little, and add salt, pepper, and a dash of Tabasco. Slice thin, serve with veggies, and pass gravy seperately.

The second day I was in France I was served "la Langue au Madere" and found it to be rather nasty. I was 22 and had never eaten tongue. After that I aquired a taste for tongue, eventually. This is how we made it:
Put the tongue in a heavy casserole with chopped onion, carrot, celery, black peppercorns and enough beef stock to cover all. Cover the casserole and put in 350 oven for 2-3 hours (depending on size of the meat).
Remove the white film that covers the tongue. Remove to a platter and keep warm. Strain the cooking liquid. Reduce by half and add a cup of Madera, thicken with cornstarch or roux. Slice the tongue and serve with the Madera sauce on top, accompanied by cornichons.

Hi,
This is pretty popular here in PA Dutch country. I like it just boiled and skinned and sliced thin on a sandwich. Lots of choices on Google but this one seems pretty close to the way I like mine.

Spiced Beef Tongue



3 1/2 pounds beef tongue
2 quarts water
6 whole cloves
6 whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons salt
4 each bay leaves
1/4 cup vinegar


Combine all ingredients in slow-cooking pot. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours or until tender. Remove from pot; drain. Cool slightly; remove skin with sharp knife. Serve hot or cold. Slice thickly and serve plain, or with horseradish or mustard sauce. It makes delicious sandwiches when served cold.

My Elderly Polish Auntie makes a great Tongue Stew--an old Polish Recipe. She will phone me the recipe and I will add it to this post later today. Come Back and Check it out. This one is a real 'Babushka Bulshetski Bowl !!

Added after receiving the long awaited message from Auntie-

Anti-Pole-Lock's Famous Tongue

In a large Stew Pot or Soup Kettle boil about 3 lbs of Beef Tongue (usually about 1.5 lbs per tongue) until begins to soften (semi-tender). Remove tongue and remove the membrane and the rough surface'skin' of the tongue. Set aside 1 cup of the water used to boil the tongue- discard the rest. Dice the tongue into small cubes.
Chop 1 large Onion and saute in a heaping tablespoon of butter until soft. Add the cubed tongue to the onions and butter -saute.
Place the meat, onion and butter drippings in the empty stewpot. Add 1.5 cups stewed tomatoes (cut up or whole (your preference)(can be canned if fresh aren'tavailable),1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 2 Bay Leaves, 1 cup water, 1 cup juice from the stewed tomatoes.
Simmer- 3 hours minimum then add 1 cup Greek ( green) Olives- sliced, continue simmering for about another hour.

Serve over noodles/dumplings/or rice.

Grampy---Do you know my elderly Auntie?? Your recipe for the cold sliced tongue sure looks like what I just transcribed over the long-distance line!! We enjoyed this dish when visiting her last Fall. The major difference in the two recipes , other than the sliced olives...is the way it is served. I have enjoyed cold sliced tongue many times, but the hot soupy stew over dumplings on a brisk Fall day is a real treat.

More food trivia: Tongue was regularly served at funerals in France. One day, some nice Frenchy chef decided to SMOKE the tongue (NO! not like a Gitanes!) and slice it thinly........very thinly.......and make layers of tongue and foie gras (that had lots of truffles and Porto). This Frenchy chef was from Valenciennes (I worked there) and called his creation "La Langue Lucullus" (Lucullus being a Roman general who was known for his love of gastronomy).
Of course, this crazy dish became the rage! It is delicious and is still made in the North of France. Best version of tongue I ever ate.

tacos de lengua

No Gramps the lady didn't prepare it for me (I wish she had though...lol). I just saw it there when I was buying my usual haul of chicken leg 1/4's. It looked odd enough...and I asked about it and that is when I was told there was not much to fixin it...but no recipe materialized.

Mayor - I am keeping a close eye on this post for that recipe from Poland....this should be quite interesting.

Thanks again folks...from what I am reading it doesn't sound like anything difficult at all.

And thanks chef for the history/trivia snippet

I've eaten only pickled tongue -- sliced thinly and served on rye bread with mustard.

that reminds me that I need a good rye bread recipe....better yet pumpernickel.

Mayor, you tell your Aunt thank you from me. I prefer the warmer foods to cold foods. They give you a cozier feeling. But over the noodles is the way to go I think. When I read that I thought that is the magic touch right there. I have a beef stew recipe that goes over noodles with more of a roux sauce and this is very similiar and that reminded me of it.

Well, guess I know what I will be cooking today for lunch and supper tomorrow then....and we are going to have rain the next few days so this will just hit the spot.

Note:
Yes Grampy was using lemons as opposed to olives in his recipe, and gottatravel used vinegar in his. Now the vinegar sounds very interesting. I may do some experimenting with that vinegar and the three recipes and see what I can come up with.

Thanks all for the info.

I've had tongue tacos from my local tacquieria when I lived in San Jose. Don't have a recipe, but it is a tasty way of preparing it

Rex- I didn't read the other recipes closely until I inserted Auntie's. I was suprised how similiar they were. I can't get anyone in the family to do the bread dumplings, and I haven't mastered the skill myself (yet) so I beg for them when available. Noodles are very good also !! Rice woukld be my last choice of the three.
Have fun, and Please do report the outcome.

Depending on where the cow was raised, you may want to substitute the lemon or vinegar for Listerine. Okay, it's Martini time.

For the tacos de legua, just follow Grampy's instructions for boiling the tongue. Remove the tongue from the boiling liquid when done and let rest for a few minutes. Then just coarsely chop the tongue into bite sized cubes, and quickly warm in a pan with some chopped white onion and freshly chopped cilantro. Throw the mixture on a tortilla or two, squeeze some fresh lime juice over it and enjoy!
Growing up I remember eating beef tongue served with Spanish sauce, which as I remember as a tomato based sauce with onions , bell peppers and maybe a shot of vinegar.

Funny thing about tongue... one of those foods you either love or hate. I'll never forget when I was in LA for the '84 summer Olympics w/ a friend of mine. While waiting for a bus outside a deli to take us to one of the events, I went in for sandwiches while she watched for the bus. I got her sandwich, then spied tongue on the menu and ordered that for myself, on rye with mustard of course. We each offered the other a taste of our sandwich, but when I offered mine she shuddered in terror, never imagining it would be something she thought to be so unspeakable (pardon the pun). Come to think of it, I haven't seen her since we got back from that trip. I wonder if it was something I (or my sandwich !) said???

I was stationed in Japan just after the war ended. The first, and only, ship that arrived with meat only had tongue. The cooks did everything they could with it, but we had tongue hash for brakfast, tongue sandwiches for lunch and roast tongue for dinner. That went on about 2 weeks and I had all the tongue I every wanted during those two weeks.

quote:

Originally posted by Rex

Howdy gang...been gone for awhile and just back...hope I didn't miss anything.

I was over at my local meat market today and did something out of the ordinary....I bought a tongue. Don't know why I did, just did. Now I gotta cook it. The lady at the market said that you don't have to do much and it is pretty good eating. Well.......we'll see.

Anyway, I need some pointers on how to handle it and what to do with it.

You guys have saved me many times...I just know there is a tongue recipe here somewhere.

For roast tongue, try the following url: http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=208979