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Sheep's Tongues in Papers
Wash the tongues and blanch them until the skins can be easily removed, and then peel them off. Place them in a stewpan, cover with nicely flavored stock and boil until tender. Butter as many sheets of paper as there are tongues, and over each spread a mixture of finely-chopped mushrooms and sweet herbs that have been worked up in a lump of butter and seasoned with pepper and salt. Drain the tongues, lay them on pieces of paper and wrap them up well so that none of the seasoning can escape. Place them on a gridiron and broil over a clear fire, turning them when done on one side. Spread a folded napkin on a hot dish, lay the tongues in the papers on it, garnish with fried parsley, and serve.
An old-fashioned en papillote treatment, except the parcels go over live coals rather than into an oven. Everything hinges on the tongues being fully tender before they are wrapped — the grilling stage only colors the paper and melts the herb butter through the meat.
- Sourcing the tonguesSheep's (lamb's) tongues usually have to be ordered from a butcher, but turn up in halal, Turkish and Latin American markets, often frozen. Each weighs roughly 3-4 oz; allow two per person, so a dish for four means eight tongues, around 1½-2 lb.
- Blanch, then peelSimmer the washed tongues 15-20 minutes until the rough outer skin lifts at the tip, then peel while still hot — cold tongue holds its skin stubbornly. Trim the gristly root end at the same time.
- How long "until tender"Lamb tongues need roughly 1 to 1½ hours at a bare simmer in stock; they are ready when a skewer meets no resistance at the thickest part. Under-cooked tongue is unpleasantly springy and no amount of broiling will fix it.
- "Sweet herbs"The period phrase covers the mild kitchen herbs — parsley, thyme, marjoram, sometimes chervil — though period lists often take in sage and savory too. Worked into butter with finely chopped mushrooms, this is close to an uncooked duxelles butter.
- The paperUse parchment, not waxed paper or foil: waxed paper scorches and foil defeats the point, which is a paper that browns and perfumes. Butter it generously and fold the ends like a parcel so the melted butter stays inside.
- Gridiron, translatedBroil the parcels about 4 inches under a hot broiler, or lay them on a grill over medium coals, 4-5 minutes a side. You are heating cooked meat and browning the paper, nothing more.
- Fried parsleyFlat-leaf parsley sprigs, dried thoroughly, dropped into 350F fat for 10-15 seconds until crisp and still green. Wet parsley will spit violently, so pat it bone dry first.
- The napkinThe folded napkin acts as a mat under the parcels and blots any butter that leaks; a warmed platter with a folded linen cloth does the same job. The recipe does not say at what point the papers are opened.
Cooking en papillote — in a buttered paper case, originally over coals rather than in an oven — was standard French practice by the nineteenth century. Sheep's tongues were cheap, plentiful offal, and dressing them with mushroom-and-herb butter in paper turned an inexpensive cut into something that could be carried to the table still wrapped. The dish belongs to the large family of Victorian and Edwardian "tongue" preparations, potted, pressed, boiled and glazed, that has largely dropped out of American home cooking while tongue remains ordinary in Turkish, Mexican and Jewish delicatessen kitchens. Note too that no oven appears here at all: the gridiron over a clear fire was still a basic tool.