My local butcher was offering two salted ox tongues for £10. I thought this was good value and bought two, one to cook and one for the freezer. It is good to revive some of these traditional recipes. Tongue is easy to prepare and cook and tastes delicious.
Method
Wash the salted tongue under the cold tap to remove excess salt.
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| Ready to Cook |
Place in a deep pan with an onion, carrot, bay leaves, celery stick and black peppercorns.
Cover with cold water and bring to simmering point.
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| Bringing up to a simmer |
Remove any scum which rises to the top.
Place a lid on the pan and simmer gently until tender when pierced with a fork.
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| Ready to remove the skin |
Leave to cool in the liquid until cool enough to handle. Remove the string and then peel off the coarse skin and cut away the gristle on the underside.
If you are lucky enough to have a tongue press you can curl the tongue into this. I like to improvise and use a small saucepan or a small souffle dish. Curl the tongue into a circle, secure with a small skewer and ease it into your pan or dish. Reduce the stock and pour some over the tongue.
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| Curled into a dish |
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| Weighed down to press the tongue |
When cold, place in the refrigerator to chill over night.
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| The pressed tongue |
Turn out on to a serving plate.
You will see that the stock has formed a jelly, remove any excess and the tongue is ready to serve.
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| Ready to Serve |
This is delicious as part of a celebration buffet table or served with jacket potatoes, salad and pickles or in sandwiches with mustard. Enjoy!
Why not be part of this revival of old English dishes?
Hello, I found your blog through youtube - looking for videos on cooking ox tongue, and I really love your selection of recipes. You seem like a true expert at all the traditional dishes, and plenty of modern fare too. I'm not a very good cook at all, but I'm hoping if I follow some of your recipes I can replicate the delicious-looking results! I've just taken a frozen salted ox tongue out of the freezer and I'm anxious because I've never cooked one before. Yours looks perfect, so I'll just try to do the same. Thank you for keeping such a lovely blog. All the best, Isla.
ReplyDeleteHello Isla,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind comments. I wish you success with the ox tongue. It is really quite straightforward and well worth the effort. I was unable to give an exact time for cooking as the size of tongues vary but I reckon simmering gently for a couple of hours until it 'feels' done when you pierce it with a fork.
You will find that most of my recipes are quite easy and should give you successful results and a sense of achievement.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you require more help.
Best wishes, Wendy.
Hello Wendy, how kind of you to reply. The menacing ox tongue has nearly defrosted, so from some research on google, I was wondering if I should steep it in cold water for a few hours to remove some of the saltiness, but if you think that washing alone does the job, then I'll do that. I don't want to leech all the flavour out, just was concerned it may be too salty without soaking. Then it'll be into the biggest saucepan I can find with the usual stock veg suspects. It's the cooking that worries me a bit, because I've read so many recommendations to cook it for several hours very slowly (Delia, for one), but one thing I don't want to do is overcook it, and as yours looks so lovely, I think a couple of hours tops should do it. It's quite a large one, at least 3lbs, I think. Delia also uses gelatine to set some of the reduced stock, but it seems redundant if you can achieve a nice jelly just doing it your way. I love ox tongue, so it'll be great if I can make my own. Fingers crossed! Thank you again. :)
ReplyDeleteAll you need to do is to put the ox tongue in a pan of cold water and bring it to the boil for a couple of minutes, you will see scum come to the surface. Discard the water and the scum and put fresh cold water into the pan, along with the veg. Bring to the boil then turn down low to a simmering point. It shouldn't be too salty. Put a lid on the pan. I have cooked lots of tongue over the years and never used gelatine. If you reduced the stock you will get more than enough gelatine. Good luck. Wendy
ReplyDeleteHello Wendy, just to let you know that I followed your instructions to the letter and I'm the proud producer of a pressed tongue. It's nowhere near as photogenic as yours, but it tastes delicious and I'll never be scared of cooking it again. Thank you so much for your help - I'm going to try a few more of your recipes soon. Take care, Isla.
ReplyDeleteHello Isla,
ReplyDeleteI am delighted to hear that you have successfully produced a pressed tongue. Don't they taste good? All the best with future efforts; the secret is to curl it into quite a small dish/pan and press well. Good luck with some of my other recipes. Best wishes, Wendy