Saturday, January 31, 2009

Beef Tongue Recipe

I know ya'all have been DYING to know the outcome of my Beef Tongue Extravaganza!!!

(And I'm not even from the South - so "ya'all" isn't even a 'natural' term for me!)

Okay, for starters, there's a borderline pornographic pic + recipe here... No, I didn't use that particular recipe, but the photo made me giggle 'til margarita shot-up my nose, so I felt it was worth sharing, at least!!!

I actually Googled "How to cook Beef Tongue" and got a buttload of "hits." Here's what I ended up with (merging most of 'em into ONE) (My modifications are noted in [brackets]):

1 3 lb large beef tongue
1 Onion, quartered
1 Carrot, sliced [I used about 6-8 baby carrots, actually]
3 Ribs of leafy celery
6 Sprigs of [fresh] parsley
3 Bay leaves
10 Peppercorns, cracked [actually, I ground the peppermill about 15x]
[3-5 Cloves fresh garlic, sliced]
[3-4 Bouillon cubes]
[4-5 Tbs Onion flakes]

[*Addendum: Might want to add a bit of salt to the water! No, I don't know how much - but I ended up needing to "salt" the meat slices when I ate it the next day.]

I started out by scrubbing the tongue, then soaked it in cold water for appx 90 minutes (changed the water about 3 times).

Then I filled a large pot (I'm guessing it's appx 5 qts +/-) with cold water. Enough to cover the tongue + appx 2". Then added the above ingredients. Put it on the stove... Brought it to a boil, then covered it, and turned it back to "simmer" (low, rolling boil). Let 'er boil for about 60 mins/lb. So, about 3 hours in my case. I did stop, midway through, to flip the tongue over (it kept wanting to float to the top and the topside would tend to dry out. I covered it w/the wet veggie matter).

After appx 3 hrs, I pulled it out and plunked it into a bowl of COLD water. Grabbed a pair of cooking shears, a knife and a fork, and proceeded to "skin" the tongue (outer surface of the tongue turned white during cooking). I did my best to "preserve" the meat underneath and actually did a halfway decent job of "skinning" it (Plunging it in cold water was a *very* good idea!).

It seems pretty tender, now - but, after skinning, I decided to plop it back into the pot 'o water/veggies on the stove to let it simmer a bit longer...

[Addendum: I'd turned off the burner, but let the tongue sit in hot water for appx an add'l 20 minutes. You definitely *don't* want to overcook it, or it'll get tough and gross!]

I did slice a hunk or two off of it - and it tastes GREAT!

Although, personally, I am more "familiar" with Beef Tongue as cold-cuts/lunch-meat. I'm anxious to put it in the fridge, then thin-slice it with my Deli-Slicer tomorrow. I'm *sure* it'll make deeeeeee-licious sandwiches tomorrow!

Okay, that's it from my world! Hope I haven't grossed anyone out TOO badly!!!

2 comments:

Tamara said...

Actually this sounded absolutely delicious!!! I'm going to try it out tonight.
I've never tried the cold water trick so I'll try that out as well tonight.

Cooking Fool said...

Wow! Sounds fantastic! You cook like I do - Google and then combine and guess. I reckon we don't do too badly! I found your site by googling 'Beef tongue'. I'm going to try your recipe on Monday-Tuesday. [I'm going to try slow-cooking it in my oven over night!]

Thanks for the recipe!

 


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