Nick Massie, a career chef who runs PaleoNick.com, shows you how to prepare shepherd-style beef tongue tacos—without the tacos.
“The cow tongue is a delicacy. Definitely a delicacy,” he says.
Massie starts with the tongue in a large stainless-steel tub partially filled with water, which he brings to a boil after adding bay leaves and salt and covering it with aluminum foil. Next, he cooks it in the oven at 320 F for 5 and a half hours. At that point, the tongue is tender, and he pulls the skin right off.
“It’s like the quintessence of marbled meat,” he says of the fatty tongue.
He then cuts it into bite-sized pieces and throws it into a pan with olive oil and fresh garlic. Afterward, Massie adds chili powder, white onion, pineapple, fresh cilantro and fresh-squeezed lime juice to finish cooking the tongue.
“People are kind of scared to eat it,” Massie says, “but don’t be afraid.”
To download the recipe for shepherd-style beef tongue tacos, click here.
5min 50sec
HD file size: 139 MB
SD wmv file size: 70 MB
SD mov file size: 29 MB
Please note: For smoother viewing of HD videos, please download the entire file to your hard drive before watching it (right-click and choose Save Link As...).
Additional reading: God of the Grill by Nick Massie, published June 13, 2012.
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12 Comments on “Shepherd-Style Beef Tongue Tacos”
1
wrote …
Thanks for sharing Nick. This is great, cant wait to try this. I may have a hard time selling my wife but that will be her LOSS.
Keven
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2
wrote …
Is there any reason you couldn't do the braising portion of this recipe in a crock pot? I rarely have time to babysit an oven for 5 1/2 hours, but I'd love to give this a try. I'm guessing that a crockpot on low for 8-10 hours while I'm at work would probably get the tongue ready for the rest of it.
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3
replied to comment from Keven Pauling…
Keven,
I agree. It will be her loss.
Let me know how it goes.
Thanks,
Nick
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4
replied to comment from Richard Joy…
Richard,
Yes, the Crock Pot will work, but make sure to err on the side of 10 hours because tough tongue is terrible.
You can also do this sous-vide style for a day or two or in a pressure cooker in around 2 hours.
It is my goal to show how to do it with minimal equipment. By no means is this the only way.
As they say, "there's more than one way to braise a cow tongue!"
Keep It Paleo!
Nick
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5
wrote …
Nice simple video.... KISS.. keep it simple.. I haven't eaten tongue in a LONG time.. since i was in Frace as a young boy. I couldn't get away from the tongu's surface texture, as they did not remove that surface. If it was cut up adn jsut the real tasty meat part was there, then it's just meat... and you taste it, and the marbleizing would give it that taste and moist soft texture, but the crispening up of the surface would really benefit its complexity.... not sure what Nick means by Chili powder is not heat.. I like spice and I would say that chili powder IS heat.. not extreme heat, but heat none the less.
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6
replied to comment from Anton Gross…
Anton,
Thanks for sharing your story about eating tongue as a child in France. I haven't seen a French preparation, but I'm going to research it now...
As far as the chili powder goes, I am talking about run of the mill chili in a local grocery store. The average heat of one of these powders is between 1,000-2,000 Scoville units, compared to 10,000 Scoville for a Jalapeño. In comparison, that is very minimal heat, which can become undetectable to a heat-tempered tongue.
Read more about this at: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tastetests/overview.asp?docid=9893
Using Chipotle Chili Powder would be a different story and would call for one tenth of the quantity, if not less.
Thanks for chiming in!
Nick
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7
replied to comment from Keven Pauling…
Keven, don't tell her ;)
Nick, another good one.
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8
wrote …
Going out to get a tongue now, I've had lengua before but not done Al Pastor, great idea.
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9
wrote …
I love tongue. Will definitely try this!
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10
wrote …
I made this recipe over the weekend and love it.
Thanks for the recipe Nick!
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11
replied to comment from Barbara Platnick…
Good to hear, Barbara.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Nick
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12
wrote …
I made this the other night in the crockpot instead of the oven and it turned out amazing! Just put it in the crockpot for about 6-7 hours with the water and bay leaf as directed. My family turned their nose3s up originally but when they started to smell it being put together they quickly changed their minds. Thanks for the great recipe,its a definate do over, soon!
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