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Sheep's Tongues, Broiled
Soak three or four sheep's tongues in brine for a couple of hours, and boil them till the skin will peel off. Skin them, split them in halves lengthwise, put them into a stewpan, and pour over them as much stock as will barely cover them. Simmer with them an onion, a carrot, three or four heads of celery, a bunch of parsley, and a few mushrooms. Add pepper and salt if required. When they are quite tender (they will be so in about half an hour), take them up and drain them, boil the gravy quickly for a few minutes, brush the tongues with it, and sprinkle seasoned bread-crumbs thickly over them. Broil over a clear fire, and when one side is done turn them upon the other. Serve on a hot dish: mix the strained juice of half a lemon with the sauce, and pour it over the tongues. Time to broil the tongues, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 4d. to 6d. each. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A two-stage dish: the tongues are poached until tender and skinned, then crumbed and finished over fire. Most of the work is in the first stage, and the broiling is only browning.
- The hinge: peel while hotThe tough outer membrane comes away cleanly only while the tongue is still hot from the pot. Let it cool and the skin grips; lift each one out with tongs, hold it in a cloth, and slit the skin from root to tip.
- SourcingSheep's and lamb's tongues are butcher's-order items now rather than counter stock, sold fresh or salted. Each weighs only a few ounces, lamb's smaller and mature sheep's heavier, so three or four is a modest dish for three or four people as the book claims, served with something starchy.
- The brine soakNo strength is given, and this is a short flavouring and blood-drawing soak rather than a cure. A strong salt solution for two hours in the refrigerator does the job. If your butcher sells them already salted, skip the brine and soak in plain cold water instead, or the finished dish will be inedibly salty.
- First boilThe recipe gives no time. Fresh sheep's tongues need roughly 1 to 1.5 hours at a bare simmer before the skin will slip; test by trying to peel one rather than by the clock.
- Heads of celeryA Victorian "head" of celery was probably smaller than the modern supermarket head, and three or four of today's would swamp the pot; two or three hearts, or six to eight stalks with their leaves, is a reasonable substitute.
- Stock and the sauce"As much stock as will barely cover" depends on the pan: use only enough to come level with the split tongues in a close-fitting stewpan. Reducing that cooking liquor hard for a few minutes gives both the glue that holds the crumbs and the sauce; strain it if you want it smooth, though the recipe specifies straining only the lemon juice.
- Seasoned bread-crumbsThe recipe does not define these; Victorian seasoned crumbs were generally dry white crumbs with salt and pepper, sometimes with herbs or a little spice. Fresh soft crumbs will steam rather than crisp.
- Broiling timeA quarter of an hour suits a slow gridiron over embers. Under a modern overhead grill or in a very hot skillet the crumbs will scorch long before that; work 4 to 6 inches from the element and expect 3 to 4 minutes a side, turning when the coating is set and golden.
- Probable costFourpence to sixpence each places this among the cheap-cut recipes of the book, the sort of thing bought for a family supper rather than a dinner party.
Cassell's belongs to the great age of English offal cookery, when a household book was expected to have something to say about every part of the animal a butcher could sell. Sheep's and lambs' tongues were among the cheapest of these, and the standard treatment - brine, boil, skin, then crumb and broil - is the same sequence applied to calf's head, cow-heel and other gelatinous cuts throughout Victorian manuals: long wet cooking for tenderness, then a dry, fast finish to give the browned surface and crunch that boiling destroys. The crumb-and-broil step is essentially the technique called a la Sainte-Menehould in French cookery of the period, generally traced to pig's trotters, and English writers borrowed it freely for tongues and ears without always naming it. Pressed and potted sheep's tongues were also a common cold-table and picnic item well into the twentieth century; the fresh, hot version here fell out of fashion with offal generally after the Second World War.