We've been cooking a lot more with everybody being home, and our annual beef quarter purchase was coming due, so we've been trying to clean out the freezer. Last year, I'd been watching some cooking shows (Meat Eater with Steve Rinella, specifically), and decided to ask for the tongue. It's definitely a weird cut of meat, but it tasted great and the kids thought it was awesome. The 5 and 7 year-olds ended up eating 3 tacos each!

At first glance, it's kinda disturbing...



The instapot worked great...45 minutes and it was cooked through, and the skin peeled right off.



Tacos (and yes, that's cilantro on there )!

Tacos de lengua to be exotic. We had cow tongue growing up and liked it. Not regularly but we ate what Dad brought home.

I remember the first time I had it, visiting my grandmother's aunt in Laredo, TX.
Her aunt's housekeeper came over every day from Nuevo Laredo & cooked lengua for lunch, as a 15yr old, it was a bit odd, but I liked it.

Have had it a couple more times on a few cruises. Don't think I could get it to fly on the menu here at the the house.

I don't care much for sliced tongue, like from a Jewish deli. The texture is odd. But done in tacos, it is good. I like it Mexican style.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Don't think I could get it to fly on the menu here at the the house.

Tell them it's slow-cooked short ribs and tell them the truth the next day.

[shudders] my mom left a tounge in the fridge when I was a kid and me and my brothers saw it...hunger strike occurred that night. Mom made us eat it for breakfast....

I have tried it since then but the texture bothers me, prolly because I know what it is..

Nope, not for me.

I'm good with it minus the skin, them boys down at the local messican joint leave the skin on

Nope, if I'm gettin' any tongue from a bovine, it had better still be attached to the animal.

It's just the idea of it. Organ meats, too. No more liver for me. Tripe and all that. I'll pass.

blech

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When I was growing up, mom would fix(boil) it occasionally. She would let it cool, and slice it. We put it on black German bread with strong mustard and raw onion. It was good, and......cheap to purchase(important in my house).

those look great! I'd love to see how you finished them after the instapot. If you can post the recipe you followed I'd love to see it.

Beef cheeks are also really good to cook with- my family has a hard time with tongue but I can occasionally make an asian stew with cheek and get away with it. no recipe, just a soy anise seed/5 spice based stew w carrots onion and garlic.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_Boston:
those look great! I'd love to see how you finished them after the instapot. If you can post the recipe you followed I'd love to see it.

Beef cheeks are also really good to cook with- my family has a hard time with tongue but I can occasionally make an asian stew with cheek and get away with it. no recipe, just a soy anise seed/5 spice based stew w carrots onion and garlic.

Lengua cooked right has the texture and flavor of roast. I can feed people lengua tacos and they don't know what it is until I tell them. They always think it's delicious.

They're good. I get one or two of the tacos on occasion from a Mexican joint in Colorado.

I've not cooked it myself, though.

quote:

those look great! I'd love to see how you finished them after the instapot. If you can post the recipe you followed I'd love to see it.

Not much to it, really. I covered it in water with chicken bullion, then added half a diced onion and three diced cloves of garlic, along with a little cayenne pepper. I put four or five slits in the skin with a sharp knife, then 45 minutes in the insta-pot, then let it naturally depressurize.

After it came out, I skinned it (outer skin came right off..there was still an inner-layer that I had to scrape off, but it wasn't too bad), sliced it, then seared it in a cast-iron pan with some oil, sprinkling with some garlic powder, cayenne, and cumin powder.

The one thing I would do different is the recipe called for oiling the pan. I put in a small amount of oil, and still felt like it was kinda greasy. I think there's enough natural oil in the tongue already that it shouldn't stick to a well-seasoned pan. If I do it again, I may try it dry, or just the absolutely minimum amount of oil to keep it from sticking.

quote:

Lengua cooked right has the texture and flavor of roast. I can feed people lengua tacos and they don't know what it is until I tell them. They always think it's delicious.

That was my thought as well. Doesn't taste like organ meat at all. It was very tender, but not mushy, and had a mild flavor. If I hadn't shown it to the kids as a tongue, they probably never would have known what it was.

quote:

I'm good with it minus the skin, them boys down at the local messican joint leave the skin on

Yeah, that's no bueno. That skin is very thick and rubbery...not to mention the taste buds. I want to taste my food...I'm not cool with my food tasting me.

Next you can try tacos de cabeza.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Next you can try tacos de cabeza.

Yeah...I think I'll pass on that!

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Next you can try tacos de cabeza.

mountain oysters!

You Haven’t Had Tacos Until You’ve Had Pig’s Head Tacos!!!!


Pig’s head carnitas at chef Michael Sindoni’s CBD Provisions in Dallas.

Ain’t gonna happen...ever...there’s more “regular “ meats to eat...we might be surprised by what goes into sausage...but don’t tell me about it...that tongue looks revolting ...but I’ll eat my weight in oysters...go figure

We live in a first world country. You don't need to be eating the leftovers or stuff from the gut pile.