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Calf's Tongue with Risotto
Boil three fresh calves' tongues in water for five minutes, drain and peel them, place a mirepoix in a braising pan with a tablespoon of butter, lay the tongues over the vegetables, season with a light teaspoon salt and two saltspoons pepper, cover the pan and cook on the range for ten minutes, moisten with three gills broth, half gill white wine and two gills demi-glace, re-cover the pan and set in oven for an hour and fifteen minutes. Remove, lift up the tongues, trim them well, the cut in two lengthwise. Dress a risotto on a hot dish, dress the tongue on top, skim the fat from the surface of the sauce, let reduce on the open fire for ten minutes, strain it through a Chinese strainer around the tongue and serve.
A braise from the Delmonico's tradition, written for a cook who already knows what a mirepoix and a demi-glace are. The measurements are pre-metric restaurant shorthand and the peeling step is the one that will trip you up.
- The hinge: peelingFive minutes of boiling will not loosen the skin on a calf's tongue. The membrane peels cleanly only after long cooking, so either simmer the tongues 1½ to 2 hours until a skewer slides in easily and peel them hot, or accept that you will be wrestling with a paring knife. The braise that follows can be shortened accordingly.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so three gills of broth is 1½ cups, half a gill of wine is ¼ cup, and two gills of demi-glace is 1 cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon; two of them is ½ teaspoon pepper.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, as was standard. A covered braise of this kind wants 325°F. Higher and the liquid boils rather than simmers, which tightens the meat.
- MirepoixRoughly diced onion, carrot and celery, about a cup and a half total for three tongues, cut large enough to survive an hour and a quarter without disintegrating.
- Demi-glaceIn 1906 this meant a reduced brown sauce made from espagnole and brown stock, a staple of professional kitchens. A cup of well-reduced veal stock, or a good commercial demi-glace concentrate, stands in; do not substitute thin broth or the finishing sauce will not coat.
- Chinese strainerA chinois, the conical fine-mesh strainer. Any fine sieve works. The ten-minute reduction after skimming is what turns the braising liquid into sauce, so do not skip it.
- Yield and the risottoThree tongues split lengthwise gives six portions. No risotto recipe accompanies this entry; a plain risotto or a saffron risotto alla milanese suits, and it should be finished at the last moment so it is still loose when the tongue goes on top.
Alexander Filippini spent decades in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and The International Cook Book (1906) reads like a chef's card index rather than a domestic manual — hence the casual instruction to moisten with two gills of demi-glace, as though a reader would simply have some. The dish also reflects a period when offal was ordinary restaurant food rather than a specialty: calves' tongues arrived fresh from the butcher rather than cured, and appeared on grand menus without apology.