Recipe: Beef tongue - sous-vide and traditional

A beef tongue gently cooked is so tender and delicious, and it's very easy too.  It's usually simmered, so you don't even have the searing stage - just mix everything together cold, let it go and let it take its time.  When I cooked this one, it actually took 3 hours to reach 80C.  The skin of the tongue comes off really easy once it's cooked, so don't even bother to do it while raw.  

The low temperature and long cooking time lends itself perfectly for sous-vide cooking, the only tricky part is after the initial cooking and peeling of the skin, you'll want to put it back in the broth so the flavour can really soak in as it cools.  I recommend wrapping the tongue in cheesecloth, then putting it in a container as close to its size as possible, turn it over a bunch of times to saturate the cloth, then let it cool in the liquid while turning over periodically.

rinse well an a light brine

Once cooked and cooled, we like to chop the tongue up, heat it up in some sauce (degreased, strained and reduced) and have tacos.  It also works great to slice it up and serve it in some sauce, or even in a sandwich.

You will need:

1                  beef tongue (1.5kg / 3.3lbs)

2                  onions

2                  serrano chilis

buried in the broth

2L / 8C        beef stock (less if sous-vide)

1                  carrot

12                garlic cloves

2                  orange zest

3                  key lime juice

3                  bay leaves

5ml / 1tsp    achiote power

5ml / 1tsp    ground black pepper

to taste        kosher salt

Method:

after 9 hours

 - wash the tongue in cold water 3 times

 - in the last rinse, lightly salt the water and let it sit for about an hour

 - slice the onions and carrot, sliver the garlic, remove the seeds and slice the serranos, and zest the oranges

 - add the vegetables to the cold beef stock and add the lime juice, pepper, bay leaves,  and achiote powder

 - lightly season the broth and add the tongue
 - bring the brew up to heat very slowly (a slow cooker works great, or set the oven for 250F / 121C and put the pot in right from cold

peel the skin

Note if cooking sous-vide:  put the tongue in the vacuum bag and surround with the vegetables.  Then add as much stock as possible (to make the skinless cooling stage easier).  Add the aromatics and seasonings and seal on a loose (soup) setting.  Set the water bath for 78C (172F) and let cook for 12 hours.  When the time is up, remove the tongue from the bag and gently remove the skin.  If you have enough broth to submerge the tongue in a small container during cooling, great.  If not, wrap it in some cheesecloth, turn it over in the broth to soak it, then let it cool in the liquid and keep turning occasionally to keep the cloth wet.  Follow the same instructions as the traditional method after the cooling stage.

peeled

 - cook for about 9 hours, turning over occasionally and paying attention to the softness of the meat
 - when the meat's fibres are soft and separate when squeezed, take the tongue out of the broth
 - gently peel the skin away
 - return to the broth and let cool completely overnight
 - degrease the broth and remove the tongue
 - warm up the broth
 - strain out the vegetables
 - reduce the broth to a sauce

after cooling in the broth

 - slice or chop the tongue and warm up in the sauce
 - serve

tacos de lengua