Home › The Principles of Cookery › Tongue, Boiled

Tongue, Boiled

If the tongue is dried, soak it for twelve hours; if taken fresh from the pickle, an hour or two will be sufficient. Put the tongue into cold water, and let it come slowly to the boil. Remove the scum carefully, and simmer the tongue gently until done enough. Its flavour will be improved if two or three large carrots and a large bunch of savoury herbs be added to the liquor after the scum is removed. When the tongue is quite tender, so that it can be easily probed with a small skewer, and so that the skin can be easily peeled off, take it up, remove the skin, and if it is to be eaten cold, pass a large carving fork through the root end, and by means of this fasten it on a board. Pass through the tip another and smaller fork, and before fixing it in the board draw the tongue straight. Let it remain untouched until quite cold, trim neatly, glaze it, and then wrap a nicely-cut frill of tissue paper round the root, which is a little unsightly. Garnish the dish with parsley. If to be eaten hot, take off the skin, wrap the tongue in a sheet of oiled paper, and put it in a little boiling liquor for a quarter of an hour before dishing it, to make it quite hot. Garnish the dish with Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, dressed spinach, or any other vegetables, and send tomato or piquant sauce to table with it. Time, a large smoked tongue, four hours and a half; a small smoked tongue, two and a half to three hours; a large unsmoked tongue, three hours and a half; a small one, two to two and a half hours. Probable cost, 4s. 6d. to 6s. Sufficient for a breakfast, luncheon, or supper dish.