Beef Tongue
Soak in cold water all night; wash and boil four or five hours; when done take off the skin and cut in thin slices, and serve with salad dressing.
A serviceable set of instructions for a cut that has almost vanished from home kitchens, but the timing and the soak both need context.
- The overnight soak tells you it is a cured tongueThe overnight soak suggests a cured tongue -- salted or pickled tongue was a common butcher's item alongside corned beef, and soaking drew out the brine, though fresh tongue was sometimes soaked too. A fresh beef tongue from a modern butcher needs no soaking at all; a cured or corned one still benefits from 8-12 hours in cold water, changed once or twice, in the refrigerator rather than on the counter.
- Simmer, do not boilThis is the hinge. A hard boil for four hours tightens the muscle and leaves it stringy. Bring the pot to a boil, then hold it at a bare tremble, 180-190F, with the tongue fully covered in water the whole time.
- Time by size, not by the clockFour or five hours suits a large tongue. A supermarket tongue of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 lb is usually done in 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. It is ready when a skewer slides into the thickest part with no resistance.
- Peel it hotThe skin lifts away cleanly only while the tongue is still steaming. Slit the underside lengthwise and pull the outer sheath off with your fingers or a paper towel; if it has cooled and gripped, return it to the hot liquid for a few minutes. Trim the gristly root end and any fatty tissue as well.
- Slice across the grain"Thin slices" means thin and on the diagonal, starting at the tip, where the meat is finest. Slicing with the grain gives long fibrous strips.
- Press it if you want cold tongueFor a firmer, sliceable cold cut, wrap the peeled tongue tightly, weight it in a dish overnight in the refrigerator, and slice it chilled the next day. Served warm, it wants to be cut thicker.
- "Salad dressing" in this periodIn a household book of this era this generally means a cooked or boiled dressing thickened with egg and sharpened with vinegar and mustard, not bottled vinaigrette. A mustard mayonnaise, or a horseradish or green sauce, does the same job.
- YieldA 3 lb tongue loses skin, root and fat and yields roughly 2 lb of trimmed meat -- six to eight servings as a cold plate.
Tongue was standard household meat rather than an oddity: it kept its shape, sliced neatly, and went a long way cold. Books of this period are often said to treat it as a cold dish for supper, luncheon or the sideboard, and this recipe at least ends at slicing and dressing rather than plating it hot with vegetables. The overnight soak is a fossil of the older meat trade, when tongue came out of a brine barrel and had to be freshened before cooking -- pickled tongue was one of the standard cured items a butcher kept alongside corned beef. Boiling for hours may also have served a practical purpose beyond tenderness: the cooking liquid would have made stock, and the frugal habits behind a book like this presumably assumed nothing in the pot went to waste.