18th Century Tongue Pie Addendum: Good Stuff Done with Beef Tongue

Today's entry is, for good or bad, wholly in the present.  I would just like to share what else I did with the tongue I used in the 18th century pie I gave my recipe for yesterday. It is not explicitly Christmassy but to me it was good food in the pursuit of a Christmas project and gave a couple meals in a busy season.  

This was the most labor-intensive and newest ingredient to me.  I did not use all of it but the extra meat is great in at least a couple ways.  

I received my tongue frozen and so let it thaw for a couple days in the fridge.  At that point, I washed it really well but decided not to trim the extra meat that was below the tongue itself.  It was quite fatty and had a lot of connective tissue but I didn’t think that would hurt the flavour of the cook.  

The period recipe says to boil the tongue for two (2) hours but as I had the extra meat on it and I imagine cows are bigger these days, I went with some modern instructions and boiled it with a couple tablespoons of salt for (3) hours.   I used a 6-quart stock pot and did replace water that boiled away during the process. 

It smelled great, like beef cheeks.  After the boiling, you need to get rid of the skin while it is at least warm.  It was relatively painless: some areas like the rough top needed to be scraped or trimmed with my filet knife but a lot of it I could just pull off. As seen here. 

I had realized that I would not use a lot of the meat I had, even to make a couple of mince pies, so I was thinking of other ways to use it early in the process.  I knew of tongue sandwiches and planned to use the top, firm part of the tongue for a few of those. 

The bottom of the tongue and the extra meat connected was gelatinous, unctuous and I knew it would break down very nicely with continued cooking. You can see what I am talking about in these pictures.  (The bottom of which I am speaking is actually at the top of both pictures.)

 

A basic recipe and instructions as to what I did with it is as follows:  

Take stock you boiled the tongue in and add: 

    The lower meat of the tongue and any extra attached 

    Half a small onion, chopped 

    1 carrot, chopped (I chopped it smallish, but I think decent chunks would be better) 

    1 celery stick, chopped  

    ½ tsp dried thyme 

    ½ tsp dried rosemary 

    A bay leaf

Put all in a slow cooker.  Set on high for a couple hours and then on low for the rest of the day or overnight.  

Let this cool and refrigerated it. When I was ready to eat it, a layer of fat had collected on the stock. Skim that off and strain the stock to get the meat and veg from it, reserving the stock, of course.  Melt the fat in a saucepan and add 50g of flour, making a roux.  Cook that until golden over medium heat and then add 500ml of the stock (you should have a fair bit left for another use.)  I simmer this until fairly thick.  Add the meat pieces and vegetables back in, cooking it just enough to warm them through. 

Moving to the top of the tongue, once its chilled, it cuts very nicely.  I made a sandwich with: 

    homemade rye bread 

    Dijon mustard 

    A little mayonnaise 

    Some lettuce 

It is very tender, both ways: the tongue has decently strong straight beef flavour, while the other meat has the juiciness and flavour similar to a beef cheek. Well worth the effort if you can get it at a decent price.  

Tommorrow we go back into history and talk about my failures with period puff pastry.