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Tongue, with Aspic Jelly
Boil a tongue in the usual way, and either roll it, or fix it on a board till quite cold. Take a pint of the liquor in which it was boiled, perfectly free from fat and sediment, and put it into a stewpan with a small sprig of thyme, three shallots, a bay-leaf, a small piece of mace, three cloves, and two ounces of gelatine. Stir it until the latter is dissolved, then lift it to the side of the fire, and let it cool. Whisk the whites of two eggs with a cupful of cold water and a tea-spoonful of tarragon vinegar. Stir this into the liquor, and when it is very hot leave it to boil, and let it boil gently for a quarter of an hour without being touched. Lift it from the fire, and let it stand to settle for ten minutes longer, then strain it through a jelly-bag till clear. Glaze the tongue, put it on its dish, and ornament with the jelly cut into cubes. Time to make the aspic, about an hour and a half. Probable cost, aspic, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for one tongue.
A Victorian cold-table set piece: pressed tongue under a coat of glaze, with clear aspic chopped into cubes around the dish. Two things decide whether it works — the strength of the jelly and the discipline of the clarification.
- Do not stir the raftOnce the egg white goes in and the liquid comes up to a boil, the coagulating white rises as a crust and drags the sediment with it. Touching it, or letting it boil hard enough to churn, breaks the raft and the aspic clouds permanently. Keep it at the barest tremble for the quarter hour, then let it settle and ladle carefully through a dampened jelly bag or a colander lined with wet muslin.
- The gelatine quantity is not modernTwo ounces to a pint would give a rubbery block with today's product; Victorian gelatine was probably less consistent and often weaker in setting power than modern powdered or leaf gelatine. For an aspic firm enough to cut into cubes, something in the region of a quarter to a third of the stated amount is likely to be closer to the mark; test by chilling a spoonful on a saucer before committing the whole batch.
- A pint here is 20 fl ozAn imperial pint, so about 2 1/2 US cups. The cupful of water for the egg whites is a loose measure and can be treated as 8 fl oz.
- Boiling the tongue "in the usual way"Ox tongue is usually bought cured and needs soaking in cold water for several hours or overnight, then simmering 3 to 4 hours until a skewer meets no resistance. Peel the rough skin off while it is still hot — it will not come away once cold — then curl it into a deep tin or cake pan, press with a weighted plate, and chill overnight.
- Getting the liquor clean before you start"Perfectly free from fat and sediment" is the step that decides whether the jelly comes out clear. Chill the cooking liquor and lift off the solid fat cap; ladle from the top rather than pouring, leaving the sludge behind. Cured tongue liquor can also be very salty -- taste it, and dilute with unsalted stock or water if needed.
- "Lift it to the side of the fire"Range language for moving the pan off the direct heat to cool slowly. The point is that the liquor must be cool, or at most tepid, when the egg white goes in; add it hot and the whites set in threads instead of forming a raft.
- Mace and shallotsA blade of mace is the lacy outer covering of nutmeg, sold as blades or ground; a pinch of ground mace will do. Halve or bruise the shallots so they give up more flavour in the short infusion.
- GlazingBrush the cold tongue with aspic that has been melted and cooled to the point of thickening, chill until set, and repeat two or three times for a glossy coat. Chop the remainder, once fully set, on a wet board with a wet knife to keep the cubes bright.
- YieldA pressed ox tongue of 3 to 4 lb will serve ten to twelve as a cold cut. The recipe reckons a pint of aspic as "sufficient for one tongue," i.e. enough to glaze it and garnish the dish.
Aspic belongs to the grand cold buffet of the nineteenth century, where a joint under clear jelly signalled both skill and expense — the aspic itself took about an hour and a half of a cook's time, as Cassell's notes. Pressed ox tongue was a staple of that table: cheap enough for a middle-class household, striking when curled into a dome and sliced across the grain, and useful because it kept and travelled well for suppers, picnics and hunt breakfasts. Commercially prepared gelatine, sold in sheets and packets from around the middle of the century, is what put this dish within reach of an ordinary kitchen; before it, the same jelly had to be coaxed out of calves' feet over a day of boiling. The egg-white raft technique described here is essentially unchanged in professional practice today, which is a fair measure of how well it was worked out.