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Braised Beef's Tongue
Wash a fresh tongue and put it into a pot to boil. Boil one hour; then trim off the tough edges. Fry a sliced onion in 3 tablespoonfuls of dripping, then drain out the onion and place the tongue in the frying-pan and cook for ten minutes, turning twice. Now place the tongue on the grating of your covered roaster and dredge with flour; pour the fat and a large cupful of boiling water over it and cook, closely covered, for an hour and a half, basting three or four times. When done take up the tongue and place it over boiling water to keep warm, while you skim off the fat and thicken the gravy with browned flour. Season with salt, paprika, onion juice, and half a cupful of strained tomato sauce. Dish the tongue and pour the gravy over it. Eat horseradish sauce with it.
A two-stage braise: a preliminary boil, a quick browning, then a long covered cook. The original assumes you know one step it never states, which is where to begin.
- Peel the skinThe rough outer skin of a tongue is normally pulled off while the meat is still hot, since it comes away far more easily then and is troublesome once cool; after only an hour's boil it may not yet release cleanly. "Trim off the tough edges" most likely refers to the gristly root end rather than the skin.
- Fresh, not corned"A fresh tongue" means an uncured one. Tongue is also sold cured or brined, which is far saltier; if that is what you have, soak it and hold back the salt in the gravy. A whole beef tongue commonly runs about 3 to 4 lb and serves six to eight.
- Cook until tender, not by the clockOne hour of boiling plus 90 minutes covered is on the short side for a whole beef tongue. Go by feel: a skewer should slide into the thickest part with no resistance, which often takes three hours or more of total cooking.
- The covered roasterAn enamelled or granite-ware roasting pan with a lid and an internal trivet. A heavy Dutch oven with a small rack is the equivalent. The rack keeps the meat out of the liquid so it braises rather than boils.
- Oven heatThe text does not say. A covered roaster of this period would most likely have gone into a moderate oven, somewhere in the region of 325 to 350F -- low enough that the cupful of water does not boil away between bastings.
- DrippingRendered beef or bacon fat saved from roasting. Any neutral oil or clarified butter works, though beef dripping is what gives the gravy its character.
- Browned flourPlain flour toasted dry in a skillet or a low oven until the colour of a hazelnut shell. It thickens less than raw flour, so use about half again as much, and it contributes the dark colour that made it standard in gravies before commercial browning.
- Onion juice and tomato sauceOnion juice is the liquid pressed from a grated onion, a teaspoon or two. "Strained tomato sauce" here means plain sieved tomato, closest to modern passata, not a seasoned pasta sauce.
- Slice across the grainCarve on a slight diagonal, starting at the thick end, in slices about a quarter inch. Sauce the slices rather than the whole tongue so the gravy reaches the meat.