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Cold Beef Tongue
Boil a tongue for three hours; when cooked skin it, trim off the rough parts of the root and truss it in good shape by placing the root against some fixture and running a fork through the thin end into the table or board; when cold finish trimming the tongue; place it on a dish, fix a frilled paper round the roots with skewers, wet it with a little hot jelly and garnish with parsley and chopped aspic. An imitation scallop shell may be carved on the tongue, commencing at the thin end and ending with the thick. Glaze it well with light glaze, spread a thick layer of aspic jelly over the tongue, and garnish it on the dish with skewers garnished with jelly and mushrooms.
A cold buffet centerpiece from the Waldorf's larder, written for a cook who already knows how to handle aspic and glaze. The technique is sound; most of what needs translating is vocabulary and the assumption that you own silver skewers.
- Peel it hotThe single instruction that decides the dish. The rough outer skin slips off cleanly in the first few minutes out of the pot and becomes nearly impossible to remove once the tongue cools. Hold it in a towel, slit the skin along the underside, and strip it while it is still too hot to be comfortable.
- Which tongueThe title specifies beef, and a whole beef tongue (commonly around 3 to 4 lb) is the likely intention; the recipe itself gives no weight. It may be fresh or brine-cured; cured ("pickled") tongue is redder and firmer when sliced. If using cured, soak it several hours in cold water first or the finished dish will be aggressively salty.
- Three hours means simmerA hard boil toughens the meat and clouds nothing that matters here, but it does make the muscle stringy. Keep the water at a bare tremble. Three hours is a reasonable estimate for a mid-sized beef tongue; test by pushing a skewer into the thickest part near the root, which should meet no resistance, rather than by the clock.
- Trussing on the boardThe fork-through-the-table trick holds the tongue under tension so it sets in an even shape as it cools. Any arrangement that holds it steady under slight tension will do; a small board, a folded towel and two long skewers work. Some kitchens instead press the peeled tongue in a mold under a weight overnight, which gives neat round slices.
- Aspic and glaze"Light glaze" is meat glaze, stock reduced to a syrup that sets tacky and shines. Aspic is clarified stock set with gelatin, brushed on in thin cold-but-not-set layers, each allowed to firm before the next. "Chopped aspic" is a set sheet diced fine for garnish. Both need to be at the point of thickening, not warm and runny, or they slide off.
- The carved scallopA shallow shell pattern scored into the surface with the tip of a knife before glazing, so the glaze pools in the lines. Purely decorative and easily skipped.
- Frilled paper and skewersThe paper frill hides the cut root end. The garnished skewers are attelets, ornamental silver spikes threaded with mushroom caps and jelly and stood upright in the meat. Cocktail picks or plain skewers give the idea without the silver.
- Yield and servingA 3 to 4 lb tongue serves 10 to 12 as a cold cut. Slice thin on a slight diagonal, starting at the tip; the meat near the root is fattier and coarser. Mustard, horseradish or a sharp green sauce are the usual accompaniments.
Oscar Tschirky's book (1896) is associated with the Waldorf, and cold tongue belongs squarely to the buffet-and-sideboard tradition the hotel served: dishes cooked in advance, dressed in aspic, and displayed rather than plated. Tongue was relatively inexpensive, went further than a roast, and held its shape under glaze, which is why it appears widely in nineteenth-century American and English cookery books as both a family dish and a showpiece. The elaborate finish here -- skewers of jelly and mushrooms, a carved shell, a paper frill -- reflects French garde-manger practice as it reached American hotel kitchens, where a cold table was judged by how much visible labor had gone into it. The same tongue, boiled and sliced without ceremony, was ordinary supper food in the same decade.