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Bullock's Tongue, Boiled
A tongue for boiling is best fresh from the pickle; but a dry one should be soaked twelve hours. Wash it well from the salt, and trim off any objectionable part. Put it into a stewpan with plenty of water, and when it has once boiled, simmer very gently till done. It is excellent, though the plan is not economical, if boiled, or rather simmered, from six to seven hours, and allowed to cool in the liquor; but, in the ordinary way, a large tongue takes from four to four and a half hours, and a small one from three to three and a half. Take off the skin and press the tongue into a round shape and stand a weight on the top, or fasten at each end to a board to keep it straight, if preferred. When cold, put some glaze over it, and garnish with parsley. Probable cost, 5s. to 6s.
A straightforward long simmer, but two details decide the result: how salty the tongue is when it goes into the pot, and how quickly you skin it when it comes out.
- What a bullock's tongue isBeef tongue from a steer, typically 3-5 lb trimmed, sold fresh or cured. Butchers and Latin American, Jewish and Asian markets stock it reliably; supermarkets often do not.
- "Fresh from the pickle" and "a dry one"Pickle means wet brine-cure; a dry one is salt-cured and much saltier. Modern cured tongues vary enormously, so taste the soaking water after a few hours rather than assuming twelve is right. A fresh, uncured tongue needs no soaking at all and will taste milder and greyer-brown rather than pink.
- The hinge: peel it hotThe thick outer skin slips off in one piece within a few minutes of lifting the tongue from the liquor. Let it cool first and it grips, and you will end up carving it away with a knife and losing meat.
- Simmer, never boilOnce it has come up to the boil, hold the water at a bare tremble. A rolling boil toughens the muscle and clouds the liquor you may want for the cooling step.
- Timing and donenessThree to four and a half hours is realistic for most tongues, but judge by feel: a skewer should slide into the thick end with no resistance, roughly 195F internally, which is where the collagen has broken down. The six-to-seven-hour version the book calls uneconomical simply spends more fuel to reach the same place with a more thoroughly cooled, more gelatinous result.
- Cooling in the liquorWorth doing when you have the time; the meat reabsorbs moisture and slices without crumbling. Cool it to room temperature no longer than two hours, then refrigerate tongue and liquor together.
- PressingCurl the peeled tongue into a deep bowl or a 6-inch cake tin, add a little strained cooking liquor, cover with a plate and weight it with tins. Overnight in the fridge gives a firm round that carves in neat slices.
- Glaze and garnishThe Victorian glaze is reduced meat stock set to a syrup; a modern equivalent is strained cooking liquor boiled down hard, or a little unflavoured gelatine dissolved in it, brushed on cold.
- Yield and costA 4 lb tongue serves eight to ten cold, with plenty left for sandwiches. The 5s. to 6s. reflects tongue as an ordinary butcher's item in the book's own day; it is now a specialty item priced accordingly.
Boiled and pressed ox tongue was a fixture of the British cold table for most of the nineteenth century -- the sort of thing that sat on the sideboard for breakfast, supper and picnic hampers, sliced thin and eaten with mustard or a sharp sauce. The pickle it refers to is the standard brine cure of the period, salt with saltpetre for colour, which both preserved the tongue for the journey from slaughterhouse to kitchen and gave it the pink slice that made it look handsome on a dish. Pressing under a weight was as much presentation as technique: a tongue moulded into a tidy round and coated with glossy meat glaze was a piece of table furniture. The habit of eating tongue faded in Britain across the twentieth century as offal generally fell out of favour, though it never left Jewish delicatessen cooking or the Mexican kitchen, where the same slow simmer produces the filling for tacos de lengua.