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SHEEP'S TONGUES, BROILED (another way)
Soak four tongues in salt and water for two hours, and boil them gently in stock till the skin will peel off easily. Skin them, let them get cold, and split them in halves lengthwise. Make a savoury mixture thus. Chop six mushrooms, and mix with them three ounces of lean ham cut into dice, a salt-spoonful of grated lemon-rind, a table-spoonful of chopped parsley, a pinch of powdered thyme, and a little salt and cayenne; a little piece of garlic may be added if liked. Sprinkle this mixture on the inside of the tongues, put them in their original position, cover with oiled papers, and broil over a gentle fire. If the papers are at all unsightly in appearance, remove them. If not, serve the tongues in the papers. Time to broil, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, tongues, 4d. to 6d. each. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A Victorian way of stretching offal into a hot savoury course. The method is sound; only the vessels, the paper and the sourcing need translating.
- The hinge: boil until the skin slipsLamb or sheep's tongues need long, gentle simmering — roughly 1½ to 2½ hours depending on size — before the coarse outer skin peels away cleanly. Peel while they are still warm; once cold the skin grips and tears the meat. The quarter-hour broiling time at the end is only for colouring and heating through, and assumes the tongues are already fully cooked.
- Oiled papersThis is a form of cooking en papillote: kitchen paper brushed with oil or clarified butter, wrapped round the food to keep the filling in place and the surface from scorching. Parchment does the same job. Foil will not brown and will steam rather than broil.
- "Broil" means grillIn British usage of this period, to broil is to cook on a gridiron over coals. A modern overhead grill or an oven broiler at moderate heat, or a ridged pan, gives the same result. "A gentle fire" means the papers should colour slowly, not catch.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt-spoon holds about a quarter of a teaspoon. For the grated lemon rind that is roughly the zest of a quarter to half a small lemon.
- Lean hamThree ounces is about 85 g. Use a dry-cured cooked ham diced small, not wet-brined sandwich ham, which will release water into the mixture and dilute it.
- MushroomsSix chestnut mushrooms, around 120–150 g, chopped fine (field mushrooms are much larger, so use fewer by weight). They shed liquid as they cook, and should be chopped small or the halves will not sit back together.
- SaltingThe two-hour soak in salt and water is a light brine that firms the meat and draws blood. Bear in mind the ham and the stock are also salty; taste the filling before adding more salt.
- Sourcing and yieldSheep's tongues are a butcher's order rather than a supermarket item; lamb's tongues are the usual modern equivalent and often sold frozen. Four tongues serve three or four as a light dish, as stated — more sensibly two now, with potatoes and a sharp sauce.
Cassell's ran to hundreds of pages of variations on cheap cuts, and sheep's and lambs' tongues were an economical everyday meat in the late-Victorian kitchen. Ox tongue, pressed and glazed, was the celebratory version served cold on the buffet; sheep's and lambs' tongues were the everyday one, boiled down and then dressed up with ham, mushrooms and herbs to give them a savoury edge. The oiled-paper wrapping here is of a piece with the paper case used for papillote cookery, and the instruction to serve the tongues in the papers if they look presentable is a small piece of Victorian household economy — the wrapping doubles as the dish.