No. 1468

Beef Tongue a la Soligny

Langue de Boeuf a la Soligny

Prepare and cook a beef tongue the same as beef tongue Roman (No. 1467); cut it into quarter of an inch thick slices; and from these cut circles of one and three-quarter inches in diameter, also as many slices of truffles as there are circles of tongue; keep then; warm in a little meat glaze (No. 402) and Madeira wine. Mince a two-ounce onion, fry it in oil with four ounces of artichoke bottoms cut into eight pieces, season with salt, pepper and a little garlic, adding the truffles and tongue, some lemon juice and chopped parsley, and serve all on a dish surrounded by sippets of bread fried in butter.

← No. 1467 Beef Tongue a la Romaine Beef No. 1469 Tongue, Italian, Baked →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed sauté built on cooked beef tongue, in the style of Ranhofer's cross-referenced Epicurean: half the work happens in recipes this one points to. Everything here depends on the tongue being fully tender before you slice it.

The hinge: cook the tongue completely firstA beef tongue (3-4 lb) needs 3 to 3-1/2 hours at a bare simmer until a skewer slides in with no resistance. Peel off the skin while it is still hot, then chill it firm before slicing, or the quarter-inch rounds will tear.
The cross-referencesNo. 1467 is the preparation and cooking method; No. 402 is meat glaze, i.e. brown stock reduced to a syrupy, sticky consistency. A tablespoon or two of commercial demi-glace concentrate, or your own reduced stock, does the same job.
Artichoke bottomsFour ounces means the trimmed hearts with choke and leaves removed, about two large globes' worth. Jarred or frozen artichoke bottoms are a fair substitute; drained canned hearts are softer and will break up in the pan.
TrufflesThe recipe calls for one slice of truffle per round of tongue. These would have been black truffles, fresh or preserved. At current prices a small jar of truffle peelings warmed in the Madeira and glaze carries the flavor; sliced brown mushrooms give you the look but not the perfume.
SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of crustless bread fried in butter until crisp, arranged around the edge of the platter. Fry them last so they stay dry.
The stamped roundsCutting 1-3/4 inch circles from the slices is for appearance and wastes a good deal of tongue. Keep the trimmings for hash or a salad rather than throwing them out.
Timing at the stoveOnion in oil until soft, artichokes to color lightly, then the warmed tongue and truffles in just long enough to heat through, perhaps two minutes. The tongue is already cooked; extended reheating in the pan makes it dry and tight.
Seasoning and yieldThe recipe says only 'a little garlic'; half a clove, minced and added late so it does not scorch, suits the quantities. The lemon juice and parsley go in at the end. No yield is given, but the quantities suggest something in the range of four servings as a course, more if the tongue is large.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and it reads like a working kitchen's index: a single cut of meat gets dozens of numbered treatments, each differing by garnish and named for a patron, a place, or a colleague. Beef tongue was standard restaurant fare then rather than a curiosity, cheap enough to buy whole and rich enough to justify truffles laid on top, and the French practice of poaching, peeling and pressing it produced a firm loaf that sliced and stamped cleanly for exactly this kind of plated arrangement. The suffix "a la Soligny" belongs to the era's habit of attaching a proper name to a garnish; the specific reference is not documented in the book, and dishes so titled in nineteenth-century French kitchens were often named for a person or estate now untraceable. What the recipe does record plainly is the hierarchy of a Gilded Age menu, where a humble organ meat became a Delmonico's course through nothing more than truffles, Madeira, meat glaze and fried bread.