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Stewed Beef Tongue
(Lingua di bue in stufato) Clean a fresh tongue of beef; put it in a plate, salt it generously and put it back in the ice-box or in the pantry, until the following day.
After twenty-four hours, scald it in boiling water, skin and lard with little pieces of bacon and put it in a kettle or a large saucepan in which the seasoning is already placed. This seasoning consists of 1/2 lb bacon cut in very thin slices, 1/4 lb. butter, one or two thin slices of ham and two middle sized onions, sliced. Sprinkle the tongue with flour, surround it with chopped meat and place the saucepan on the fire. When the tongue begins to brown, pour five or six cups of soup stock and one cup of water. Add the usual bunch of greens, two or three cloves, salt, a pinch of pepper and one of cinnamon.
Cover the saucepan tightly, boil for about four hours, rub the sauce through a sieve and serve everything hot. 157
A long, gentle braise that turns a whole beef tongue tender enough to slice. Nothing here is difficult, but several of the instructions assume a kitchen and a butcher's counter that no longer exist.
- The tongue itselfA whole fresh beef tongue runs 3-4 lb and usually has to be ordered. "Fresh" matters: the pickled or corned tongues sold in delis are already brined and would be far too salty for this treatment.
- Salting overnightThe 24-hour salting is a light dry cure for seasoning and moisture, not a preservation step. Keep it refrigerated throughout, not in a pantry, and rinse the surface salt off before scalding.
- SkinningThe skin only peels cleanly while the tongue is hot. Scald it, then work fast with a paring knife at the thick end; if it cools and grips, return it to the boiling water for a minute.
- LardingThreading strips of bacon through the meat with a larding needle is optional here, since the tongue sits in half a pound of bacon and a quarter pound of butter for four hours. Skipping it costs little.
- "Chopped meat"Most likely a handful of raw ground or finely chopped beef or veal packed around the tongue as part of the braising base. It breaks down during the long cooking and goes into the sauce when it is rubbed through the sieve.
- The usual bunch of greensA tied bundle of aromatic herbs and vegetables (Italian mazzetto), typically parsley and celery with a bay leaf, bound with string so it can be pulled out before sieving.
- Liquid and heatFive or six cups of stock plus a cup of water should come most of the way up the tongue. Keep it at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil for the full four hours; the recipe cooks it covered on the stovetop and gives no oven instruction.
- DonenessFour hours is a fair estimate for a large tongue, but judge by feel: a skewer should slide into the thickest part with no resistance.
- The sauceRubbing the braise through a sieve pushes the softened onion, bacon and chopped meat into a thick gravy. Skim the surface fat first, or the sauce will be greasy; there is a great deal of rendered bacon and butter in the pot.
- ServingSlice across the grain, on the diagonal, discarding the gristly root end. A tongue of this size serves six to eight.
This treatment, in stufato, is a slow braise on a bed of bacon, butter, ham and onion. Pellegrino Artusi's widely-read La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891) includes tongue braised along similar lines, and Italian-American cookbooks of the following decades carried such treatments over. The pinch of cinnamon alongside the cloves reflects an older seasoning habit, when sweet spices in savoury braises were common. The offer of "the ice-box or the pantry" suggests a book written when cold storage could be mentioned but not assumed.