Beef Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose a plump tongue with smooth skin.
Soak salted and dried tongue for 20 hours.
If fresh from brine, soak for 3-4 hours.
Place the tongue in cold water and let it warm gradually for 1 hour.
Cook and serve
Cook slowly in the same water for 2 hours.
Plunge into cold water to remove the skin.
If fresh, cook in boiling salted water until tender.
Slice across the tongue to serve.
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
What each ingredient does
- Beef tongue
- Provides the meat itself; slow, gentle cooking breaks down its dense muscle and connective tissue to make it tender.
The step that matters
Cook slowly in the same water for 2 hours. Gentle, sustained heat below a hard boil breaks down the tough connective tissue in the tongue. Boiling vigorously tightens the muscle fibres and can leave the meat firm and dry.
“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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