Cod Tongues with Egg Sauce

A Newfoundland and Maritime staple written for a cook who already knew what egg sauce was and had a barrel of salt fish in the pantry. The overnight soak is the whole recipe: everything else takes fifteen minutes.

• What cod tongues areNot tongues at all but the small triangular muscle from the underside of the cod's throat, roughly the size of a large scallop and much the same texture when cooked. They are sold fresh or frozen in Atlantic Canada and through some fishmongers; the overnight soak here implies the salted, dried version.
• The soak is not optionalSalt cod tongues must be soaked to draw out the cure, and "changing it once" is the minimum. Use cold or barely tepid water in the refrigerator rather than warm water left on the counter overnight, and change it two or three times. Taste a sliver of the raw tongue before cooking: if it is still aggressively salty, keep soaking.
• If you have fresh tonguesSkip the soak entirely and go straight to poaching. Fresh tongues need no desalting and will fall apart if given long water treatment.
• Ten minutes is too longCod tongues are gelatinous and set quickly. Slip them into water held just below a simmer and give them three to five minutes, until they turn opaque and firm. A hard boil for ten minutes shreds them and cooks out the gelatin that gives them their body.
• Egg sauceThe book assumes the reader knows it: a plain white sauce -- roughly 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and a cup of milk -- with two coarsely chopped hard-boiled eggs stirred in at the end, seasoned with salt, pepper and a little lemon. Since no salt goes into the fish, season the sauce properly.
• "Brush" means napThe instruction is loose. Spoon the sauce over the drained tongues so they are coated, then set them on the toast; sauce applied with a brush will not amount to anything.
• YieldAbout 1 lb of tongues with the sauce above serves two as a light main course or four as a first course, one or two slices of toast each.