To Boil Tongue
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the tongue in plenty of water for 24 hours if it is old and hard, or for a few hours if it is fresh.
Place the soaked tongue in a pot with plenty of cold water and add the bunch of savory herbs.
Cook
Gradually warm the pot for 1 hour, then simmer very slowly for 3.5 to 4 hours, depending on the size of the tongue.
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
The step that matters
Simmer very slowly. Gentle, slow heat lets the tough connective tissue in the tongue break down gradually, leaving the meat tender. Boiling hard toughens the muscle fibres and can leave the outside overcooked before the centre is tender.
“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.
More boiled tongue recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.