How to cook beef tongue?

Beef tongue is not only considered a very useful product, but is also a true delicacy. In order to maximize the taste of the offal, while retaining all its beneficial properties, it is important to be able to cook it correctly. The subtleties of cooking beef tongue will be discussed in more detail in this article.

The maximum benefit from cooked beef tongue can be obtained only if it is of good quality.

Therefore, when buying offal, it is important to follow some recommendations.

• First of all, you need to pay attention and evaluate the appearance of the language. On the surface of the product is unacceptable the presence of gray patches or stains, which will speak about his ignorance. As for the color of the offal, it can vary from pink to purple hues. If the color of the product is very pale, this indicates that it has previously been frozen and defrosted.
• By touch the by-product should be tight and elastic. If pressing a finger on the surface of the product forms a recess, which does not disappear after a few seconds, then this indicates a failure of the product.
• From the by-product should come the characteristic smell of beef meat. Outside flavors will talk about staleness or improper storage of the tongue.

Unfortunately, not all ways to check the quality of the product can be applied when choosing it. After buying the language at home, you can make a small incision on it, from which juice will definitely stand out. The liquid should be clear and appear in small quantities.

Abundant discharge of juice will say that the tongue was previously frozen. Fluid turbid shade indicates a violation of the temperature storage of the offal. If along with a clear liquid a few drops of blood were released - no need to be afraid. The presence of blood suggests that beef tongue is very fresh.

To boiled tongue turned out soft and juicy, it is important to pay special attention to the preparation of the product for cooking. Before cooking the offal must be left for thirty minutes in chilled water. Such manipulations will remove dirt from the surface of the product. After soaking, the by-product must be rinsed under a stream of clean water and remove all films, fat and salivary glands from its surface.

The tongue should be cooked in a large dish, as it changes significantly in volume in a big way during the cooking phase. It is allowed to divide the language immediately before cooking into portions. Salt by-product and water in which it will boil, is not recommended immediately. Salt is not the best way affect the taste and texture of the offal - it will become dry and firm.

Before you put a tongue into the water, you must boil it and reduce the heat to medium. After laying the offal, you must regularly remove the foam from the surface of the broth.

Overexposed by-product will lose its taste and useful properties, and will also become tough. Checking the product for readiness is quite simple: to do this, pierce it in the thickest part with the help of a knife tip or other sharp object. If a completely clear juice oozes from the puncture, the by-product can be considered cooked.

20-25 minutes before the end of cooking, salt is poured into a saucepan with the product. Twenty minutes later, the tongue absorbs the salt and all the flavors, after which the boiling procedure can be completed. At the beginning of cooking, chopped onions, favorite roots and seasonings can also be added to the pan to the tongue.

The time of cooking the by-product depends primarily on the method of its preparation. In order to boil the offal, you can use not only the pan, but also a double boiler, a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. The duration of the preparation is also influenced by the weight of the product.

A byproduct weighing more than one and a half kilograms is cooked in a saucepan until cooked for a rather long time — up to four hours. The product of smaller weight prepares about three hours.

In a slow cooker, both small and big beef tongue is prepared quickly enough. Cooking time will be two hours, regardless of the selected cooking mode. It is worth noting that the beef offal can be boiled in two modes: cooking and stewing.

In a double boiler beef tongue will cook a little longer - two hours and thirty minutes. The cooking time of the by-product in the pressure cooker will be exactly two hours. If the small-sized tongue cooks in the pressure cooker, it will take only an hour and a half.

Cooking recipes beef tongue differ only slightly. The basis of cooking is always the general principle of processing and boiling offal. The difference lies in the used dishes, as well as in the use of additional ingredients that will affect the taste characteristics of the finished language.

For cooking beef tongue according to the classic recipe using a large enamel pan.

As for products, in addition to the language, the following components are used:

• one small onion;
• celery or parsley root;
• two bay leaves;
• two carrots;
• five peas of fragrant black pepper;
• salt is added to taste.

The by-product is soaked in chilled water for thirty minutes, cleaned of impurities and immersed in an enameled pan with water. The contents of the container must be reboiled, after which the liquid is drained. Pure liquid is poured into the pan and the by-product is put into it again.

In addition to the by-product, crushed onion, favorite roots, as well as bay leaf and several peas of fragrant black pepper are put into the container. After the broth begins to boil, the fire should be lowered to the minimum value and the product should be cooked with a gentle boil for two hours and thirty minutes. Twenty minutes before removing the pan from the fire, broth should be salted.

Boil offal in a slow cooker is much easier than cooking it on the stove. During the preparation process, it is not necessary to periodically remove the foam and check the readiness of the product. It is also necessary to put onions, carrots, bay leaves and black pepper in the broth.

Onion and carrot do not need to chop. Salt water in this case should be immediately, but not twenty minutes before the end of cooking. It is also recommended to put two peeled garlic cloves into the broth. After laying all the ingredients you need to turn on the cooking mode for ten minutes.

After the specified time, you need to open the multicooker lid, remove the foam and set the cooking or quenching mode for two hours again.

The process of cooking the tongue in a pressure cooker is similar to the method of cooking in a slow cooker. In this case, time will differ. On the preparation of offal of small mass will take only half an hour.

To obtain flavored broth is recommended to use the following components:

• one small onion;
• one celery stalk;
• one carrot;
• allspice black peppercorns;
• salt to taste

One liter of water is poured into the bowl of the pressure cooker, the tongue, chopped vegetables and seasonings are laid. Prepared by-product in the mode of "languor" from one and a half to two hours, depending on its mass.

Steaming allows you to cook not only very tasty, but also healthy dishes. In addition to the taste characteristics, all useful substances will be maximally preserved in the by-product. Steaming will require the following components:

• beef tongue weighing no more than 700 grams;
• juice of one lemon;
• a mixture of Provencal or Italian herbs;
• salt and black pepper to taste.

To make the language as juicy as possible, it is recommended to boil it wrapped in foil.The by-product is cut into portioned pieces with a thickness of no more than ten millimeters. The foil is also cut into small plates, each of which is sprinkled with fragrant herbs.

Each piece of tongue should be put on a separate foil plate, sprinkled with lemon juice, sprinkled with salt and wrapped. The by-product is laid out on the steamer grill and cooked for one and a half hours. If the tongue has more weight or is cooked in its entirety, the cooking time will increase to two and a half hours.

It is easy to clean the by-product after boiling it. The skin will well peel off from the surface of the tongue, if you resort to one trick, which is a sharp cooling of the product. After cooking, the tongue should be placed in cold water and the colder it will be, the faster and easier the skin removal process will be.

The skin on the cooled by-product must be slightly incised with a knife. With the help of the tip of the knife, the skin is hooked and removed from the tongue with smooth movements.

Various hot or cold dishes are often made from the boiled offal. Also, the language can act as an independent snack. Hot by-product can be served with a side dish of vegetables. The easiest way to serve beef tongue is to use it for cold cutting along with sausages, smoked and dried meat.

If the by-product is served as a separate dish, then the sauce must be prepared for serving. For example, you can prepare a dressing of apples, sour cream or mushrooms. To make applesauce, you need a couple of apples, a small piece of butter, half a head of onions and 150 milliliters of low-fat cream.

First, in an enameled deep dish on low heat, it is necessary to melt the butter and fry the shredded onion on it to transparency. Then crushed fruits, peeled from the skin and seeds, and two large spoons of water are added to the onions. The contents of the pan are stewed until the apples soften.

Further, the mass of onions and fruits is crushed with a blender or rubbed through a sieve, which takes more time, but will allow you to get a more uniform and delicate texture. The mixture must be seasoned with salt, pepper and curry. The sauce is again sent to the fire, cream is added to it and stew for a few more minutes until thick.

The mushroom sauce is prepared according to a similar principle: in an enamel pot it is necessary to melt a piece of butter and fry the onion in it. Chopped fried mushrooms (100 grams), a finely chopped clove of garlic, a teaspoon of flour, 250 milliliters of heavy cream, and salt and pepper to taste are added to the onions. The mass is cooked over low heat with constant stirring until thick.

The easiest dressing for beef tongue is sour cream. For its preparation it is necessary to mix 150 grams of fat sour cream with finely chopped salted cucumbers and olives. You can also add chopped greens and a small spoonful of apple cider vinegar to the sauce. The resulting mass must be salted and pepper to taste, mix well until a homogeneous consistency.

After boiling offal, it is recommended to eat it immediately, until the taste characteristics of the product began to deteriorate. However, it is allowed for a short time to store the by-product in the refrigerator. Before you send the product to storage, after cooking it must be cooled.

So that the by-product does not absorb foreign odors from the refrigerator, it must be wrapped in foil, food film or stored in a container that can be tightly closed with a lid. The shelf life of the boiled tongue is quite small and is two days.

On the intricacies of cooking delicious beef tongue described in the video below.