Boiled Beef Tongue

Step 7 Future studies

This was surprisingly good- everyone tried it, and agreed that it tasted like perfectly good boiled beef. Of course, there's not exactly a huge clamor for boiled beef these days. Tongue recipes are still stuck in the 50's or earlier, so we discussed some alternate cooking techniques.

First, any future boiling will be done in the pressure cooker to shorten the time. Nothing was gained by having to wander through the kitchen periodically to check on a boiling pot all afternoon.

Second, we'll follow up on the barbecue sauce idea and use a different slow-cooking method. Just like southern pulled pork (or Mexican carnitas) we could let the tongue cook slowly in the oven, then shred the meat and give it a tasty sauce. This should soften the connective tissues as necessary, while avoiding that unfortunatel boiled-meat texture. Dry cooking should also concentrate the beef flavor.

A slow grilling or smoking would probably work as well, and I'm curious about deep-frying a tongue in the turkey oil. That could be entirely too much fun.

Other suggestions?

Comments

[jcobb7]

Awesome! We get tongue all the time from our local authentic mexican restaurant. But we just bought a cow and when we had it butchered I requested the tongue. My 10 year old is so excited to try it, my 4 year old I already know loves it. I will definitely do as you did in boiling the tongue this weekend. A show we were watching gave it a final sear before serving. Thanks for posting this! :)

[zisidog]

I got an unpickled tongue from my butcher last week. I lightly seasoned it with a small amount of salt and pepper, placed it in a roasting pan covered tightly with aluminum foil. Put it in the oven at 200 degrees at 10:00pm and took it out at 8:00am. It made its' own wonderful gravy. I let it rest an hour before it was easily peeled. My tongue loving guests were in meat heaven! I wouldn't know, I don't eat it!

[cwodtke]

Anthony Boudain's cookbook includes a maderia tongue recipe; it's what esscoffier recommends also. I'm trying it as I type (well, boiling)

[DanYHKim]

My family used to eat tongue rather frequently. It is good with a 1:1 mixture of white vinegar and soy sauce. Very good cold.

[girlcousin]

I had beef tongue with roasted potatoes at a little mom and pop restaurant in Vienna. They served it with what I thought looked like fresh grated parmesan cheese. I sampled a small portion, and was I glad it was just a cautionary bite! It was very potent (albeit very delicious) fresh horseradish! My mother used to make pickled tongue to serve as a small bite before dinner, served on crackers. It's delicious once you get past looking at what it is!