Beef tongue- It's delicious!

So, I've been out of work for a couple months now. We're not broke, so this isn't a "let's see what I can make for a dollar" type situations. In fact, the stuff isn't real cheap anymore. What I have been doing however, it making more home cooked meals because it's fun and makes the house smell nice. I watch all the shows, the bizarre foods and the no reservations and the iron chefs and whatnot, and the general theme has been "cow tongue is about the most delicious beef flavor out there, if you like BEEF flavor. Blows pot roast out of the water". So, naturally, I had to give it a whirl. What is odd to me- is how hard it is to actually get some. I had to adventure into the heart of Frogtown (my MN people will know this place) to a place that specialized in all things odd and offal. We're talking tripe, bull testicles, you name it. Stuff i've never seen before. Of course, there it was. A gigantic 4lb cow tongue. I didn't take any pics, but it's rather hilarious. Especially because the tongue is bi-color, part pink, part black. The game was afoot.

I've also been experimenting with barbacoa style recipes- adobo, peppers, that kinda thing. I've stumbled upon one that works for me, and decided to combine the two. I mean best "roast" style beef I can get, and a recipe meant for BANGIN' tacos- has to be good, right?

The answer is- RIGHT. DAMN RIGHT. Now, you have to slow cook the ever loving E36 M3 out of a cow tongue to get it soft, because there is almost 0 fat on it, it's allllll muscle. I did it in a puree I made out of peppers in adobo, chili powder, cayenne, clove, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, cumin and beef stock. Most recipes for this style call for chicken stock, but I wanted that double beefed in goodness. I couldn't honestly tell you the measurements, because I just added crap to the blender til it smelled good. Dump all that along with the remains of the thing of beef stock (or chicken stock if you want to make it a meat festival. Speaking of meat festivals, why is there no bacon stock? Sure bacon GREASE, but that just tends to make meat oily in the crock-pot). Jam all that into the crockpot and set that ish on high for like 4 hours. Most people would take it out and be done at this point- so if you stop here- take el tongue-o out of the crock pot (tm) and set it on a cookie sheet to cool, or prepare to burnify your hands. The next step is the fun one, you need to peel the tongue and get all the taste buds off. I started from the back, and put a slit up the middle on top, and basically peeled it like a banana. Most people also call for cutting off the lower "connective section", but I didn't do that, because there is a small fat deposit there, and as I learned later, the best part of the tongue. Jammed it back in the crock pot and turned it down to low and forgot about it for the rest of the day. Bout 8:30pm CST (another 4-5 hours after I peeled it), I decided it had cooked long enough. I pulled it out, and set it on the cutting board to slice it. quarter inch slices, lot like slicing a banana, only with more mooing and less 3 Stooges banana peel jokes. At the same time, I did take the connective section off it, but noticed there was some meaty lookin' stuff in there. So I decided to dig into it some. Now, there's some fat, some weird skin, and some other things in there, but much like pickin apart a bird on turkey day for the bits left behind- this is where it's the best. There's some longer muscle fibers in here, and HODAMN are they tender and delicious. Get with those.

Bottom line? A-maze-ing. Like completely functional never gonna break down Biturbo amazing. The BEEF flavor that comes through is incredible, without being gamy. The overall tenderness is there, if you take the time to slow cook it. This is not an hour meal, this is an all day process. You can cook it like any traditional roast, or do what I did and make what amounts to tongue barbacoa. Your taste buds will thank you.

I believe you. I had beef tongue once in a hole in the wall mexican place, and it was great. The menu was all in spanish, I didn't realize what I had ordered since I don't know enough real Spanish. I would have never orderrd it on purpose, but it was a good tasting mistake.

Lingua eat it all the time.

Yeah, Lengua (I've seen it spelled both ways) tacos are what put me on to this. I've never actually ordered them anywhere, but I always heard they were solid, and now I know.

Tongue is always lumped in with offal and organ meats, when it's just another muscle. Aside from needing to peel the taste buds (which a lot of vendors will do for you), it's just like any other beef muscle.

Hey, more for us, right? It's damn delicious meat.

Been eating it since I was a little E36 M3, first generation Mexican American.

Now you gotta try menudo and tacos de sesos

Yeah man burritos de lengua are the shiz. Most taco shops have em and the mexican grocers around here have tongue wrapped in trays along with the rest of the meat.

I always go straight for the beef tongue in the jewish deli.

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: Yeah man burritos de lengua are the shiz. Most taco shops have em and the mexican grocers around here have tongue wrapped in trays along with the rest of the meat.

That's the strange part, I live like 5min from the hispanic district in St. Paul- and I still had to go really far to get it.

Next, try Calf Hearts.

I E36 M3 you not.

Calf hearts? I'd give it a whirl... though organ meats tend to get too gamy for me.

mndsm wrote: Calf hearts? I'd give it a whirl... though organ meats tend to get too gamy for me.

Well, remember heart is still muscle, unlike liver, kidneys, etc. Never had calf in particular though, so can't say much else.

I buy tongue from one of the local guys around here whenever I can, though there's not a lot of tongue on a single cow, so it's not always available from him.

Next up should be pork cheek and tripe

smog7 wrote: Now you gotta try menudo and tacos de sesos

Menudo is nasty and even my dogs won't eat it, but what is tacos de sesos?

Sesos = braaaiiiins

Good stuff. South St. Louis City has a tradition of friend brain sandwiches served at corner taverns and such. The neighborhood bars that serve them are dying off, but there are a few places that serve brains.

I love 'em. The texture is sort of like firm scrambled eggs, and they have a hint of organ-y unctuousness, but nothing overpowering. And a vinegary hot sauce goes incredibly well with them.

Despite my fondness for most other offal - sweetbreads are among my favorite foods, and I'll throw down on good heart or liver just about any time - I can't get into menudo/tripe or chitlins. I'm open to the possibility that I haven't had the right preparation yet, but as of now...just...no thanks.

I wish somebody would just serve this stuff to me and not tell me what it is. I think once I cleared that initial hurdle, I'd be all over it. Took me a long time to try sashimi, and I'm an addict now. I generally dig the organ meats too (huhuh...huh..huhuh.) Bacon-wrapped chicken livers (or fried) NOMNOMNOM.

I cooked cow tongue once, for my dog. Ill admit, i just couldnt bring myself to eat it. But after cooking it once, boiled with no spices i can say that it smelled incredible! After this thread, I'm gonna have to do it

I'll generally try anything once... I tend to get shy around organ meats though, liver in particular, that whole gamy thing gets me. Even this beef tongue is a little gamy for me the next day. Iono.

DrBoost wrote: I cooked cow tongue once, for my dog. Ill admit, i just couldnt bring myself to eat it. But after cooking it once, boiled with no spices i can say that it smelled incredible! After this thread, I'm gonna have to do it

I either cook it similar to the instructions above, or do the part up to the peeling and then slice it and fry it up with some onions and peppers. Either way it gets re-cooked after being peeled.

I always get Lengua if it's on the menu, damn that is good stuff. I've never cooked it before, though.

In reply to carguy123:

You aren't going to Chuy's or any of those places are you? Go to Junior's or one of the other places along Azle and 25th on Northside if you want the good stuff. Also Esperanza's on main is pretty good for eggs and brains or nopales for beakfast. I am with you on menudo with boiled tripa, but I love it with fried tripa.

It's amazing how we tend to have strong prejudices against food we have never tasted. Oooh, I'm not eating THAT!!! I remember way back when I lived in Ohio, I fished in local lakes quite a bit and almost always caught some carp. Good fight, lousy taste, right? One day I took my 100% Italian neighbor out in my boat, he caught a nice 5# carp. I told him to throw it back. He said I was nuts, no we are going to eat it! OK, whatever. Turns out his wife had no idea how to cook, my wife wouldn't touch it, so it was up to me. Filed it, skinned it, cut out the vein. Wrapped in foil, lemon juice, butter, salt, pepper, lemon slices, cooked it over the charcoal grill. Soon found out that I had been very wrong for a long time. It was delicious.

My grandfather used to say, "I don't eat anything that tastes me back."

He had a way with words. I personally enjoy tongue when done well. Of all the foods I've known (and I've known some), I still don't do liver, radishes, or balut.

One of my fond memories of childhood is eating fried bits of liver any time we had fried chicken.

curtis73 wrote: My grandfather used to say, "I don't eat anything that tastes me back." He had a way with words. I personally enjoy tongue when done well. Of all the foods I've known (and I've known some), I still don't do liver, radishes, or balut.

I'm amused to see radishes in the same list as balut.