Wine Pairing Story (19)

Tongue in action while mooingBeef-tongue cooking in the Loire
Less than a year after a wine-pairing story featuring the other end of the cow, the tail, here is one about a very different type of meat : the beef tongue.
The cow's tongue has something in common with the tail in the sense that it almost never stops moving and working, but it's a very different style of meat : while the tail has this lovely sticky feel brought by its cartilaginous parts, the tongue has a soft and fine texture with the sauce playing a central role for the taste of the dish. I decided to make a try and do the cooking of this dish after spoting well-priced (and well sized) beef tongues on the meat aisle of a supermarket in the Loire. I was checking for special sales at this time of the year, like they often sell pork parts for 1 € a kilo. There was indeed cheap pork that day (not at 1 € though) in the refrigerated cabinets, but these huge, fresh tongues took my attention. I had never cook one, B. was busy in another part of the small town and I took on me to make the leap and go straight cook it. I asked a couple of people about how to prepare a beef tongue, I was said the sauce was important for that dish, which made me hesitate, but Laurent Saillard, whom I shortly visited as he was busy pruning Noëlla Morantin's vineyards, gave me good tips about ways to prepare this crucial sauce, leaving room for improvisation, which was fine with me.
The beef tongue that I bought that day weighed 1,514 kilogram and cost 8,93 €.

The tongue in its cast-iron potI had never really paid attention to the fact that beef tongues were often bicolor, that is, pink and grey. I should have noticed, if I count the number of times cows licked my hands or even my face (or my camera in some instances)...
Once in the kitchen, I put the tongue to boil in the cast-iron pot. This cooking pot weighs tons but its heating inertia plus the one of the wood cookstove yields great cookings. I put water with ungrinded sea salt in the pot with the tongue. I didn't drown the tongue in the water as I felt it would have made too much water, so the tongue surfaced almost by half, but once the lid back in place, there's a lot of steam in there and any way I'll turn it over once to be sure.Beef tongue & vegetablesThe whole cooking was supposed to last about two hours but I left the tongue much more than that, maybe three hours. At one point as we were not checking the thing, it steamed to such an extent that I had to add a bit of of water to compensate. For the last hour, I added vegetables that I bought on the market in Saint-Aignan, to a guy who farms organic. The veggies weren't overpriced like organic products often are, and I bought some turnips and carrots. Leeks would have been fine too.
As you can see on the picture, the water has turned into a lightly-oily, savourous-looking soup.Peeling off the tongueThe following stage consists in peeling off the tongue. Some seem to say that the tongue skin can be eaten too but I opted for the peeling on this first try. This is not a very pleasant thing to do because images of this probably-cute cow using its tongue all day during her life comes back to mind (who hasn't had a cow lick his/her hands once in his/her life ?). But if not pleasant, it's very easy and comes off like a tight-fit gardening glove.The final resultThis is how this beef tongue will look before you serve it. But before that, there are two operations to do :
first the sauce.
__The sauce is here made with a base of tomatoes that I took from a glass can of garden tomatoes given to us by B.'s parents a couple of years ago and that we never ate. This glass had been kept in a closet all that time at room temperature and were in perfect condition. See the pic on left : I put several of these juicy tomatoes in a frying pan with shallot, sprinkled them with dry powedered ginger and dry tarragon (both from small glass bottles bought in the supermarket) and poured on the whole thing some generous pours of Porto (any Porto would make the job, I took an ordinary one that has been around for years). The result after a nice, short cooking and partial evaporation of the Porto is what you see on the right. Your sauce is ready.
__The last stage will be to pour the sauce on this already-cooked tongue and put the whole thing into the electric stove for 15 or 20 minutes, at a setting like 8 or 9. This helps the aromas of the sauce melt into the meat. Check from time to time, the sauce must not dry too much on the tongue.The right wine on the tongue...That's it : just grab a knife and cut a few slices of the tongue (it's pretty easy to cut). Make sure that you take some sauce with your slices and Bon Appétit. How could we pass this dish for years when it's so easy to cook is a mystery. You often have thing at easy reach and still don't take advantage of this chance.
For a first time, I've been pretty lucky : I didn't study much my affair as I jumped onto this without warning and improvised. This meat is tender and tasty, and the sauce isn't the only reason. For some reason I decided that a minor variety wine like a Pineau d'Aunis would be a good match, maybe because I knew that the beef tongue is not as a powerful red meat and that it needed a samely not too powerful wine. I chose Clos Roche Blanche L'Arpent Rouge 2007, a Pineau d'Aunis which is I'm afraid a rarity today (there's no more available) and that I should be ashamed to dare boast pouring and drinking like that in front of you. This unfiltered wine is indeed very nice, a very fresh feel first, with fruit, spicy aromas, something strikingly close to cinnamon, and on the dish side there was this fine texture of the tongue with a differently spicy feel where ginger and tarragon melted beautifully. I was afraid that the spices of the sauce would overwhelm, but that's not the case with this Pineau d'Aunis, perfect balance.
Now, there han't been made any red Pineau d'Aunis in 2008 and 2009, too little grape volumes these years, You'll find only ("only" should be with quotes of course...) rosé Pineau d'Aunis in 2009, and in a very limited volume too. there's hope still that in 2010 there will be red Pineau d'Aunis again. In any case, check for the availability and don't miss them if they make any, it's a steal at the mere 7 € something at which they sell it.
Here is a 9 € tongue weighing 1,5 Kg which makes two savoury meals for 2 people at least and it's beautiful cuisine for nearly nothing... Again, how could I pass this for years ?...Sweet & tender tongue use (Parthenaises at the Paris Agri Fair) Visiting a meat-cow farm in BurgundyWell, this is not in the Loire, but that's in Burgundy again. We visited a meat-cow family farm in central Burgundy, the tongue I bought could have come from this type of farm as well. The elder farmer shows us around, he has a bull which gets easily upset and I'm obliged to retreat after it begins to shake the fence. It's full-blown calving season and there are many small cute calves all over the place. As it's cold and snow outside they're all in the shed but otherwise they graze in the prairies around. Some of the cows are from the Parthenais breed, an ancient French breed.
See how the last cow (the one with C-section stiches) licks me and the camera with her tongue, it's both cute and so appropriate for this particular post...............That's a good opportunity to tip the readers about the soon-to-come Paris Agriculture Fair (feb 27 to march 7).
I shot this picture on the right in this fair, when then-Interior-Minister Nicolas Sarkozy visited. He was to become Predident 3 months later. This fair allows the visitor to come in contact with rural France in the middle of Paris. You really feel something different with so many farmers and their family attending the fair, the atmosphere is relax and unpretentious. For an entry fee of 12 €, you get an amazing window on deep rural France and its people. In addition to hundreds of farm animals (cows and pigs especially), you also come across many politicians of all the political spectrum who visit briskly the fair, particularly during the first weekdays. There's also plentiful of hearty foods from the French provinces and quite a number of winery stands where you can taste wines for free.Swift nostril cleaning (still want to eat beef tongue?...)

Comments

[hikalu]

This is the first time to see how to cook beef tongue. I've only seen a sliced one. Interesting!

[Tom in Houston]

Tongue is a cut of meat I have been afraid to try, even though I usually am somewhat adventurous. Your story has convinced me to try it. Thank you!

[Frank]

I like to take tongue out of the poaching liquid, peel the skin, brush on a mild mustard-based paste and then give it a quick finish in the oven to brown the coating. Slice and serve with extra mustard sauce. Delicious - the only problem is that there's only one tongue per animal!

[Bertrand]

I'll take your tip, Frank. I liked my semi-improvised sauce but there must be other great ways. Thank you...
Bert

[Amaronese]

Nice recipe Bertrand. I'll try it myself next time I come by a nice lingual piece of meat at the butcher's. Will pair it with a Pineau d'Aaunis from Pascal Simonutti though. I normally prepare it with the classic Madeira-sauce or with light and creamy sauce of sherry and capers. That last one goes particularly well with a Romorantin (Porte Dorée from Tessier i.e.).