The first time I realized people eat animal tongue was when I read one of Beverly Cleary's books. I don't recall the title but I do remember Beezus and Ramona's disgust when they realized the delicious, tender pot roast they were enjoying for dinner was tongue their mother had cleverly hidden under brown gravy. At that time, I shared their disgust. Fortunately, I grew up and my, uh, taste buds did, too.
I had my first taste of beef tongue at a Japanese yakiniku-style restaurant several years ago. It was grilled, tender and absolutely delicious. Since then, I have made it a point to order it when I spot it on a menu; that doesn't happen as often as I would like. This past Tuesday was the third of the month and that means Ladies' Night Out (LNO). LNO is deserving of a blog post all its own so I will simply say that we ate at Gazen Restaurant, an izakaya-style eatery and tongue was on the menu. It was delicious but 5 slivers of meat for $12 made me decide I needed to learn to cook this thing on my own.
I purchased a tongue yesterday and did the cooking today. I have to admit that a tongue, seen in its entirety, is intimidating and more than a little disgusting. Cow tongues average 3-4 pounds so that is a significant hunk of flesh! Undeterred, I gave it a scrub, immersed it in water along with a bay leaf, some peppercorns and a generous handful of salt. I brought the water to a boil, reduced the heat and simmered the pot, covered, for almost 3 hours. I drained off the cooking liquid, soaked the tongue in cold water for a bit and then peeled the thick white skin off. Most of it came off extremely easily and the few bits that did stick were taken care of with a few scrapes of the knife.
The fatty underside was sliced away and after a few judicious swipes with my knife across the top surface (to skim off the bumps that so disgusted Ramona and Beezus), I sliced the remainder into thin slices. The majority of the meat was refrigerated for sandwiches tomorrow. The bits that did not make it into the fridge were appraised by Quality Control; Rusty and Farley were extremely attentive during my tongue-in-cheek performance and judging by the small pool of Farley-drool at my feet, they appreciated the smell, and samples, as much as I did.
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ReplyDeleteThis made me both wince and admire your fearlessness at the same time. I have not been adventurous enough to taste beef tongue. The thought of preparing one at home has not crossed my mind. Sticking out my tongue and making faces at the row of beef tongues in the butcher shop, well, that I have done.
ReplyDeleteAfter you've cooked it, stripped off the thick covering and sliced it thinly, the texture is like a smooth and tender roast. I can imagine some people not liking it because it does lack some of the "chew" of other cuts of beef. As I kid, I remember poking at the wrapped tongues in the meat department and wondering if you ate tongue, could it taste you back?
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