Tongue

Who fears the tongue?



We cook tongue a lot. My wife is Slovakian and it is common place in their cuisine.

Lots of times I skin it cure it then crust it with black pepper, then I cold smoke it and dry it a little. Sliced thin it makes the most wonderful sandwiches.

I leave the skin on when I cure and or smoke it. It seems to hold a lot of the juices and flavors in.

If you want to remove it, it is hard. Here is a video of how to do it. Its a good way to practice your knife skills too. After doing this you will be able to skin a side of salmon blind folded.

YouTube - How to strip off skin of Beef-Tongue　牛タンのむき方

I made a Slovakian dish with beef tongue today.

I smoked it cold for a few hours then made a parikash stew.









Then I cut it to fit in the pot. I used a pressure cooker for the stew.

Start a large onion to browning and add a few cloves of chopped garlic. Then add a little oil, sliced carrots, a diced stalk of celery, and a chopped dill pickle. Toss and turn on med low.

then add a teaspoon of caraway seeds, a teaspoon of celery seeds, a teaspoon of marjorom, a few tablespoons of paprika, salt and pepper.

Then add a heavy splash of red wine. and some beef broth. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the tongue.

Cut the tongue to fit in the pot place it in the liquid and simmer covered until the skin begins to pull away from the meat. Remove it then with a clean dish cloth peel the skin off and discard.

Slice the tongue into 1/2" slices and put it back in and simmer till it is tender.

In the mean time make a butter roux by lightly browning some flour in melted butter over low heat.

When the tongue is tender, take the pot of roux and whisk in a cup of sour cream. Then add a ladle of the broth and whisk again. This will keep it from separating.

Add the sour cream mixture back to the pot and stir till it thickens up and becomes a creamy gravy.

We served it tonight with Hungarian dumplings. They are similar to spatzle, but are actually just drop dumplings made with egg and flour.

Truly authentic stick to your ribs Eastern European fare.



The tongue is definitely misunderstood. I think its one of the best parts.

What is cachete? Cheek?

I love tacos de lengua too. Tacos de cabasa is real nice too.

There is a taco place near my work that is fantastic. The kitchen is in plain view and They chop the meats to order. If you order tacos de cabasa they put a head on the cutting board and start cracking and carving away. The looks on the other peoples faces is worth ordering it alone.

They roll out and make the tortillas to order too.

yeah and there is a pickle in the dish. two things that go together so well, pickles and tongues. Some people put a klobasa in this dish. But this is just too much!

Here is the same dish made with pork tongues.





I know there is a place for tongues in que. Just gotta find a way to bard them in fat or something.