Beef tongue tastes like most organ meats, to me closest in taste to the heart than any other part of the cow. Stock made from the tongue will taste like tongue, just like if you cooked the liver with some bones, it will taste like liver more than stock made from beef bones alone.

You can simmer it, remove the skin and slice it for cold cuts, serve it hot with different types of sauce or use both the broth and meat for making tongue souse, which in our area is often how it's prepared and is a delicious way to serve it. (IMO)

I guess the only way you'll know if you like the taste of the broth is to cook the tongue and try it.

I often use the tongue in stock, but Ruthanna is right, it does have a flavor that's different from muscle cuts. We often had cooked tongue in the refrigerator when I was a kid, Dad sliced it for sandwiches. As a bonus, if a friend opened our refrigerator and saw a big ole' cow's tongue on a plate, it tended to freak them out a bit, which was fun.

Elery really likes the tongue to grind and add to sausage, which is seasoned enough that the flavor isn't noticeable, he says it adds a different texture to sausage that he likes.

Annie

Here, it's often served with a sauce Gribiche.
3 hard boiled eggs
45ml sunflower oil
large teaspoon mustard
3 soup spoons vinegar
3 gherkins
1 heaped soup spoon capers
1 soup spoon chopped parsley
1 soup spoon chopped tarragon
salt and pepper
separate the egg whites from the yolks and mash the yolks with the vinegar and add the oil a little at a time as if you're making a mayonnaise.
Chop the gherkins, egg whites and capers and add along with the rest of the ingredients.

I always corn the tongue first (pickle), using the same recipe I use to make corned beef.

It would be a shame to make a second rate broth from one of the finest cold cuts. That's how I feel about tongue.

Jim

Yes, what Jimster said.

Growing up, tongue was a rare treat.
We only had it when we butchered,

I think my mother simmered it until tender,
Don't know what seasoning she used,
Probably just salt & pepper.

But how we loved it sliced thin on her homemade bread!

Reading this thread made me hungry for tongue,
But here it is way too pricey for me.

Rusty

I've only had tongue once, when I first went to Mexico City and did not know enough Spanish to know what "lengua" meant. I disliked both the taste and texture and will probably never eat it again. It was in some sort of soup, and I ordered it at a restaurant that just happened to be in the neighborhood where I found myself at lunch time. I think I was not terribly far from downtown, which was where my hotel was. When I returned to Mexico City, I stayed with friends and made better arrangements for meals.

Lars

We love tongue, I grew up with it. It does have a softer texture and takes some getting used to if you have never had it.

Like my mother and hers before, I slow poach it until tender, cool and them skin it. Place into a hot frying pan with butter and brown on all side. Add tomato paste and let that brown also to remove the raw taste. Remove the meat to a platter and sauté a ton of mushrooms, and now add some of the poaching liquid. Thicken with a roux, and season with L&P and some good hearty red wine. Slice the tongue, reheat and serve with potato croquette or tater tots and peas.

Several years ago one of the ethnic markets had them for sale at .99/pound. We bought 6 or 7. Now the price is crazy high but all the stores carry it. And as a kid, they were dirt cheap.

Many years ago I used to have lunch at a venerable old deli in downtown Cleveland called Otto Moser's. They had lots of old photos of show business people on the walls. The menu featured great sandwiches and fermented dill pickles.

If memory doesn't fail me, my favorite sandwich was a combination of tongue and one or two other cold cuts. It was called a Slapsie Maxie.

A web search reveals that Otto Moser's still exists, but at a different location and without the Slapsie Maxie on its menu. I guess tongue is out of fashion now. No liverwwurst either. They have lots of chicken and turkey sandwiches, and stuff like humus, which I don't remember them having back in the day.

Jim

This post was edited by jimster on Wed, Jul 3, 13 at 18:22

This has been interesting to read. As a kid I really liked liverwurst, but detested calf liver and chicken liver. I think I was over 40 before I'd even try pate.

I was in my early 20's when I first tried tongue. It was very inexpensive, and a friend said she cooked it all the time, using it just like any other beef. I bought it peeled and sliced, and probably just cooked it in a skillet with salt & pepper. I imagine it would have been a lot better if properly prepared. I'm not going to find out though!

I e-mailed a few friends to see if someone wanted it. One responded that she just bought one that day, and offered me a few recipes. I told her I'd just save it for her instead. :)

When I returned to Mexico City, I stayed with friends and made better arrangements for meals.

Lars - I might not always agree with you but you do tend to crack me up!

This post was edited by foodonastump on Wed, Jul 3, 13 at 20:32

I grew up in Bakersfield, CA.....lots of Basque restaurants.
One of my favorite items was the pickled tongue.

Author: Wool Growers
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 24 hours
Cook time: 3 hours
Total time: 27 hours

ItâÂÂs not actually pickled! Makes excellent sandwiches or eat as an appetizer with bread or crackers. Very simple recipe with excellent flavor, with a few Basque tips to get it right!
Ingredients

1 tongue
4 cloves of crushed garlic
â cup of cider vinegar
â cup of vegetable oil (or olive)
1 small bunch of chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Bring tongues to a boil until tender in plain water for ~3 to 5 hours or 50 minutes per pound depending on size (my grandma adds some herbs).
Let rest for ~5 minutes then peel skin from tongue.
Refrigerate tongue for 24 hours until firm in order to be able to slice it thin.
Crush garlic, very important to bring out the oil.
Mix vinegar, oil, crushed garlic, and chopped parsley.
Slice very thin, about 2-3 millimeters. Slice what you want to eat, save the rest.
Spread on plate then add salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle dressing over sliced tongue and serve immediately.

Notes
If the vinegar sits too long on the tongue it will make the meat too soft.

It is really good.

Ever eat a Coney dog in a restaurant? Well, then you've eaten beef tongue... At least all the blocks of Coney chili I've bought over the years had beef tongue listed as an ingredient.

Rita

It is too bad that people are discovering beef tongue and beef cheek, just like chicken feet and wings, they are getting to be expensive.

I have enjoyed tongues (& cheeks) many times.

I also enjoy pork and beef scraples, which have tongue & cheek as part of the ingredients.

It mystifies me why we call these mystery meats. The whole world enjoys them except us.

dcarch

Tongue is right up there with snails on my list of foods that give me the creeps. I don't know why. I like liver, so why is tongue any worse. Maybe because tongue is one of those things you can see while it is still attached to the animal. We used to visit a dairy barn when I was a kid. We'd feed the cows and I can remember the feel of those rough tongues. Eat one? No way. Once someone told me that tongue should be "peeled", I could never stomach the thought of it. There's something about the idea of having tongue on your tongue that is eeeww.

Have I mentioned that I am a picky eater?

"I have enjoyed tongues (& cheeks) many times."

Would that be a tongue in cheek remark?

Jim

This post was edited by jimster on Sat, Jul 6, 13 at 13:42

dcarch, you're right about stuff being discovered. One used to be able to get oxtails quite cheaply, but now they're a pricey item--especially considering how little meat there is. (As S. Tracy once said about K. Hepburn, 'Not much meat on her, but what's there is cherce.' ('choice'))

I have cooked tongue before, and I like it. I will admit, though, having to peel it after it's partially cooked is a little gross. I don't find it particularly liverish, and the broth it produces is nice and beefy. If you can find a cotechino sausage, you might try it in a bollito misto, a mixed boil. It's a big heaping mix of boiled meats, the Italian version of a pot-au-feu (although an Italian chef might say a pot-au-feu is a French version of a bollito misto).

I love tounge. I was only used to the swedish way of cooking it, but then tried the Mexican as well and I still liked it. It is just so tender and melts in your mouth. I've never seen it for sale or I would brine it and cook it myself. There is one Taqueria that has it for breakfast tacos and I will often get those.

Now liver - no way, can't stand that. Never had hearts or other organs.

I like it but do not like most organ meats. I do like pate' and scrapple. I find tongue more like pastrami sliced very thin.
Have not thought about cooking it in years. Did see it in market recently. I think it was smoked and fully cooked like holiday ham so probably way too salty. Didn't appeal to me at the time.

I hate tongue, and I am not a picky eater. I can eat liver, feet, skin, heart and all kinds of organ meats. I have even eaten testicles and eyeballs and thought they were quite good. But two things that I cannot stomach are kidney and tongue. Kidneys smell like urine and Tongue smells like bad breath to me, and I cannot get used to either organ, and believe me, I have tried... The last time I attempted tongue, I made tacos out of it, hoping the strong spices would cover up the smell and taste, but it was no use. Underneath the pungent spices, I could still smell the stale-mouth odor of the saliva glands that are part of the tongue. It sat in our fridge for a week and no one would touch it. I finally discarded it.

I love beef tongue. Street tacos, here I come!

I grew up eating beef tongue. It was a staple in my folks' home. I cook it still. It's actually not true about the broth tasting undesirable: mine always comes out like a nice strongly-flavored beef broth: think consume.

Once I've cleaned and scrubbed it with salt, I put mine to cook overnight in a slow cooker on low. I add cut up onion, carrots, celery, parsnip and a few cloves of garlic to the water and make sure it's totally covered. In the morning the tongue is ready to be peeled, and the broth is ready to be seasoned. Not to mention the very heady aroma of beef broth. I slice my tongue up, cover it with brown mushroom gravy and serve it over mashed potatoes. It can also be chilled and then sliced like deli meat and used in any application that calls for roast beef.

My ex used to hate it so I had to get creative. You can cut it up and cube it, then sear it. It makes a great replacement for steak in burritos or tacos. It also goes well as meat in a stew. It's only recently in the last 60 years that we have shunned these alternative meats because we've allowed ourselves to be squeamish and to mentally disconnect with where our food comes from as a society. Not only is it shameful, it's wasteful. You get your sirloin, tenderloin, chuck roast, brisket and rib eye from the same animal. Most people don't tell you this, but the fat you find in organ meats are actually very good for you(most doctors don't even know this anymore). It's a source of high density cholesterol which helps keep your veins and arteries healthy and flexible.

And it's not like prepackaged or prepared foods don't have any disgusting ingredients in them, we just don't know the particulars. At least with an offal piece like tongue, you know exactly what you are getting. Tongue of all the offal meats is actually a muscle meat as opposed to the liver, kidneys or tripe.

Love tongue. Poach it till tender, skin and dice it. Stir-fry it in a hot wok with garlic and oyster sauce (ho yau), lots of cracked black pepper. The 'wok hay' gives it those nice slightly crisped edges without drying it out.

I used to sneak it into the Chinese banquet dinners I'd make for friends. Not one of them ever realized it was tongue until I told them. They always thought it was really tender, tasty roast beef!

Smoked tongue!! Yummy!