No. 1141

Fresh Cod's Tongues with Black Butter or Chopped Sauce

Langues de Morue Fraiche au Beurre noir ou a la Sauce Hachee

Pour two quarts of water into a saucepan, let boil, then add half a pound of carrots, and a quarter of a pound of onions, both finely minced, a few sprigs of parsley, and two gills of vinegar. Let the whole boil for fifteen minutes, then throw in the cods' tongues; cover the saucepan; at the first boil remove it from the hot fire to keep the liquid at the same heat, but without boiling for fifteen minutes; then remove and drain the tongues, wipe them on a cloth to dry all the moisture, and dress them on a very hot dish; season with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley, then pour over a liberal quantity of black butter passed through a fine sieve; set the dish for a few moments in the oven before serving. Instead of black butter a chopped sauce (No. 539) can be substituted.

← No. 1140 Fresh Codfish, Slices a la Hollandaise Cod, Haddock & Halibut No. 1142 Salt Codfish, Spanish Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

A short-order dish built on a vinegar court bouillon and finished with browned butter. The only real difficulty is sourcing, and the poaching time.

Cut the poaching time hardCod tongues are small, gelatinous nuggets of muscle; fifteen minutes at near-boiling turns them to rubber. They are done in three to five minutes off the boil, when they turn opaque and firm to the touch.
What a cod's tongue isNot the tongue proper but the fleshy hyoid muscle from under the jaw, one per fish. Sold frozen in Newfoundland and through Atlantic Canadian fishmongers; a scallop or a piece of monkfish cheek behaves similarly in the pan.
GillsA gill is half a cup, so two gills of vinegar is one cup. With two quarts of water that gives an acidic court bouillon, which will help keep the flesh white and firm.
"At the first boil remove it from the hot fire"On a coal range this meant sliding the pan to the cooler end. On a modern hob, bring the liquid to a boil, drop the tongues in, then cut the heat to the lowest setting or take the pan off entirely so the water sits at roughly 175F without bubbling.
Black butterBeurre noir is butter cooked past nut-brown until the milk solids are dark and fragrant, usually finished with a splash of vinegar off the heat. Straining it, as Ranhofer directs, removes the burnt sediment; go by smell, since it passes from nutty to acrid in seconds.
Drying the tonguesWiping them dry matters more here than it looks. Any poaching liquid left clinging will thin the butter and stop it clinging to the surface.
The oven at the endA few moments only, purely to bring the platter up to temperature. Ranhofer gives no oven heat. Longer and the butter separates.
YieldRanhofer gives no quantity of tongues. Reckon eight to twelve per person as a first course; the court bouillon as written will handle two to three pounds.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and its cod chapter reflects an era when a whole fish was broken down for profit rather than filleted for convenience: sounds and tongues, among other parts, had their own numbered preparations. Cod tongues in particular are a thrift dish that survived into fine dining because they are genuinely good, dense and faintly gelatinous, and they remain a staple in Newfoundland, where they are more often floured and fried with pork scrunchions than poached in a vinegar bouillon. The beurre noir finish is the standard French treatment for skate and other soft-textured seafood, and the acid in both the poaching liquid and the butter does the same work in each case: it cuts richness and sets the flesh. The cross-reference to No. 539 is typical of the book, which was written with professional cooks in mind.