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Lambs' Tongues and Potato Salad
Trim well and round six pickled lambs' tongues; slice them lengthwise into very thin slices. Slice also very thin six small, cold, boiled potatoes. Place both in a salad bowl, add a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley. Season with four tablespoons dressing. Mix well and serve.
A composed cold salad that depends almost entirely on the quality of two prepared components: the pickled tongues and the dressing. Neither is defined here, which is the main thing a modern cook has to solve.
- Pickled lambs' tonguesOnce a common delicatessen and butcher's item, sold brined and cooked, ready to slice. They are rare now outside halal and Middle Eastern butchers and some specialty shops. Fresh lamb tongues, simmered until tender (roughly 1.5 to 2 hours) and peeled while warm, are the usual stand-in; pickled beef tongue, sliced small, also works, though the flavor is heavier.
- "Four tablespoons dressing"The book assumes you have a standing dressing on hand and does not say which. A plain vinaigrette in the region of three parts oil to one part vinegar, sharpened with mustard, suits the salad best, since the tongue is already salty and acidic. Four tablespoons is enough to coat but not pool.
- Choose waxy potatoesSliced very thin, floury potatoes will collapse into the dressing. Use a waxy variety and boil in their skins. The recipe specifies cold boiled potatoes; if you would rather have them absorb more dressing, peeling and slicing while still just warm is a departure from what is written.
- Slice thin, and lengthwiseThe recipe specifies lengthwise slices, which give long ribbons rather than round coins. It gives no reason; either way, the thinness matters more than the direction.
- Season carefullyPickled tongue carries a lot of salt. Dress and taste before adding any of your own, and expect to need pepper rather than salt.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; six tongues and six small potatoes would stretch to about four small first-course servings. Serve cool rather than refrigerator-cold; a short stand after mixing helps the potato take up the dressing.
Tongue was a standard household meat well into the twentieth century, when nose-to-tail butchery was the default rather than a restaurant conceit, and brined tongues kept far better than fresh meat. Lambs' tongues were the small, cheap version of the ox tongue that anchored many Victorian and Edwardian cold tables, and they turned up in salads, in aspic, and on the delicatessen counter. Pairing them with potato and a vinaigrette recalls the central European cold meat-and-potato salad, the same general family as the German and Austrian dishes that mix sliced sausage or beef with boiled potato and a sharp dressing.