Cow Tongue Tacos (pics)

Last nights dinner was cow tongue tacos. For the first step, I cooked it in the pressure cooker for 40 minutes.

Here is the stuff that went in:
1 cow tongue, 1 onion, some peppercorns, a few cloves of garlic, kosher salt, 2 anahiem peppers. I was going to use dried anchos, but after searching cupboards, it appears that I left a bag of groceries at the grocery store. I could not find the anchos or the chocolate that I bought.



In the pressure cooker:



Tongue cooked with skin on:



With skin peeled off:



Chopped and cooking in the skillet with cumin, ground chipotle, ground ancho, and garlic powder:



Plated. One with salsa, sour cream, lettuce, and pepper jack cheese. One with just pepper jack cheese:



And the close up:




This was my first time cooking cow tongue and I thought it turned out pretty well. While I was eating I realized that the meat should be more finely chopped as the chunks are never that big at the Mexican restaurants when I get tongue tacos. After I was done eating I chopped up the leftovers to the consistency that I usually get when I order them.

They also weren't quite as good as the ones that I can get at the little Mexican restaurant in town, however it was only a first attempt and I will try again someday. I just have to wait until the wife is out of town again.

brandon_w wrote:

Awesome. Is it too early to nominate pics for the next photo contest?

Nice post, brandon_w.

Nice post... Does the recipe specifically call for the skin to be on during cooking? I was wondering if the seasonings might penetrate better that way but turn it to mush at the same time.

I've only had lengua a few times. What's the draw? Never understood why it's so beloved. Is it a comfort food thing?

This recipe I kind of threw together on my own, borrowing a bit of knowledge from The Whole Beast by Fergus Henderson. That is where I read to remove the skin after cooking, as it is easier to do, it really does peel right off. Most recipes say to simmer for 3 hours, but I didn't have time for that, so I threw it in the pressure cooker and it turned out just fine.

Seebee - I am pretty new to lengua, only had it a few times, but have enjoyed it each time. When I ordered a 1/4 of a cow I was able to get the tongue, heart, and liver because nobody else wanted them. I still have the heart in the freezer. I think tongue has a really rich, beefy flavor. The texture isn't the same as skeletal muscle, so if you can get used to that, I think it is more flavorful.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

brandon_w wrote:Thanks for the comments everyone.

Brandon,

Please allow me to add one additional kudo, great pics delicious looking tongue.

Enjoy,
Gary

There are a lot of ways in which tongue reminds me of bologna, if bologna were really good...

I usually throw them in my crock-pot in the morning with whatever seasonings and retrieve when the skin starts to peel. It really does take on the flavors well - and I can't imagine how difficult it would be to skin raw - there's a reason they make purses out of cows...

Beautiful job! Thanks for sharing. I've made pickled tongue before but never tried cooking tacos de lengua before. I think I'll give a whirl sometime soon.

As for the draw, for me, I'm not sure what it is but sometimes a craving sets in. That said, the texture, mouthfeel, density and bite resistance of tongue are truly unique. And there's always the fact that when you're eating tongue, your food is tasting you back!

=R=

Whoa!

I grew up eating Tacos de Lengua and I have never seen the lengua cooked like this. Typically you simmer for about 3 hours with the skin on. Remove, peel, trim gristle, chop and serve. With corn tortillas, lime, cilantro and onion of course. Damn, I dont eat beef anymore but this topic is making my mouth water...

crrush wrote:

brandon_w wrote:

Awesome. Is it too early to nominate pics for the next photo contest?

Nice post, brandon_w.

Wow. I've been searching for words, but that's all I've come up with. I've not seen tongue quite like that before. Thanks, brandon_w, for the post and pictures.

Jesse wrote:I grew up eating Tacos de Lengua and I have never seen the lengua cooked like this. Typically you simmer for about 3 hours with the skin on. Remove, peel, trim gristle, chop and serve. With corn tortillas, lime, cilantro and onion of course. Damn, I dont eat beef anymore but this topic is making my mouth water...

My taco toppings are admittedly not the most traditional, more like traditional Midwestern white kid.

To me the meat did not seem ready after being chopped up straight out of the pressure cooker, so I decided to season it up and throw it in the skillet. I really liked the seared/crunchy texture this gave the meat.

brandon_w wrote:

Jesse wrote:I grew up eating Tacos de Lengua and I have never seen the lengua cooked like this. Typically you simmer for about 3 hours with the skin on. Remove, peel, trim gristle, chop and serve. With corn tortillas, lime, cilantro and onion of course. Damn, I dont eat beef anymore but this topic is making my mouth water...

My taco toppings are admittedly not the most traditional, more like traditional Midwestern white kid.

To me the meat did not seem ready after being chopped up straight out of the pressure cooker, so I decided to season it up and throw it in the skillet. I really liked the seared/crunchy texture this gave the meat.

Dont get me wrong...it looks very appetizing.

Try the tacos de lengua at Pasdita (east). You'll understand the draw. BTW, the Pasadita style, which I prefer, has the lengua cooked down to the point of falling apart. No baloney texture whatsoever. C. Leon is similar.

BTW, the original boloney, mortadella, is just about my favorite food. Yet I dislike the sponginess in many tongue preps. Seems undercooked.

JeffB wrote:BTW, the original boloney, mortadella, is just about my favorite food. Yet I dislike the sponginess in many tongue preps. Seems undercooked.

Apologies for the tangent, but this is something that I've always wondered. Is bologna a (d)evolution of mortadella, or is it a matter of parallel development?

I've always assumed that bologna started as an alternative name for the best-known salume made in that fair city, mortadella. But I'm afraid the answer is unknowable and no one on these boards is likely to have any insight regarding such things.

When I was a kid, we would have tongue a couple times a month at home. I never knew it was tongue until I got a little older! But I do remember my mom buying it at Dominicks. I don't think I've seen it at a "regular" grocery store since those days (80s).

I'm Korean. So when we ate it, it was sliced thinly, sauteed and wrapped in lettuce with ssamjang, dressed scallions...a la Korean bbq.

I remeber the texture was a little chewy...but in a pleasant way. I remember enjoying a lot, actually.

I should try a lengua taco sometime. Is the lengua slow cooked initially to make it tender in this preparation?

The lengua tacos I've had have been slow cooked, chopped, and fall apart in strings much like brisket.

My standard tongue dish (which Ronnie_Suburban made look much better than I remember) does use slow-cooked tongueand getting it to the right texture is tricky - but it should have some "tooth." It's more like what you get at a Jewish Deli than in a taco: I think the texture is changed by chopping.

The lengua tacos I've had at Maxwell Street (usually at Lencho's Tacos) are fall-apart tender, not chewy at all. They're slow-cooked/braised, I think.

viaChgo wrote:When I was a kid, we would have tongue a couple times a month at home. I never knew it was tongue until I got a little older! But I do remember my mom buying it at Dominicks. I don't think I've seen it at a "regular" grocery store since those days (80s).

I'm Korean. So when we ate it, it was sliced thinly, sauteed and wrapped in lettuce with ssamjang, dressed scallions...a la Korean bbq.

I remeber the texture was a little chewy...but in a pleasant way. I remember enjoying a lot, actually.

I should try a lengua taco sometime. Is the lengua slow cooked initially to make it tender in this preparation?

I recently marinated some I purchased pre-sliced at Super H-mart and grilled a la Korean BBQ. It was indeed chewier than I'd anticipated despite being so thinly sliced. Pretty inexpenisve at $2.99/lb pre-sliced (which is the great part).

My only comment is that I use veal tongue for Lengua. It's a little more subtle as well as for veal anything else.
BTW, available at H-Mart. -Dick