How is Cow Tongue?

Question

We may be cooking this for a school project on traditional foods in Spain.
Is it delicious or just plain gross?
My group can make
- tacos, with cow tongue as meat
- churros with thick hot chocolate with a hint of cinnamon
Which one would be better and more traditional??
Does anyone have any good recipes for either??
M

Answer 1

I love cow tongue but wouldn't use it for tacos - unless you want to grind it up - which you don't normally do. Tongue is a soft meat - very tender. To cook it, I always put it in a pot, cover with water and boil 1 hour. Then I peel off the outer skin from the tongue. Then I let it cool just a little, slice it into slices, and section it out for different meals and place it in the freezer. If I plan on having it for dinner that night, I take the portion I want, saute some onions and garlic until translucent. Add 4-5 chopped Roma tomatoes and saute for 1 minute. Then I add about 1/8 c soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, black pepper to taste, and some broth (homemade or canned - beef or chicken - or use water and some chicken or beef base - kind of like bouillon cubes only wetter and in a jar). Stir. Then add the meat into the mix, add more broth to barely cover, and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken a little (should take about 20 minutes or so). Serve over rice. My family loves it. I even gave it to my step-daughter who would never EVER eat it. I told her it was beef - which it was - and she loved it. She even went back for seconds and that's when we told her what it was. She didn't eat any more of it. It was a "mind" thing.

For a more traditional meal for Spain, I'd say go with the churros with the hot chocolate.

I have two cookbooks from Spain. One covers Basque cooking and the other covers Tapas - the little dishes of Spain. Spain has bars called Tapas bars where you get these little dishes of foods. Pre-dinner foods - what we call appetizers but not like what we serve. They have things like chicken wings, snails simmered in chorizo and spicy paprika sauce, garlicky grilled mushrooms and batter-fried pimientos. More are shrimp - where everyone shelled their own, tossing the shells on the floor. There are far more than 100 tapas. Tapas represent a style of eating and a way of life. They can include frogs legs, grilled chorizo sausage, jamon serrano (cured ham), tangy Manchego cheese, simple canapes (almost anything on top of a piece of bread), quail, fresh snails, caviar, and baby eels. They can even be foods we traditionally eat as appetizers. But more often than not they cross the line into what we might think of as first course or main course dishes. But they are served in very small portions with a very low price. Tapas can also be soups. They can be things you eat with a fork like a fillet of meat, but cut in small pieces.

The cooking in Spain is not the hot and spicy cooking of Mexico and South America. It has Moorish or Arabian overtones to some of it's cooking and has a lot of the tastes of the rest of Europe.

That's more information than you wanted but I thought I'd just add that.

One last thing, regarding your beef tongue. I found a recipe in my Mexican cookbook that sliced the tongue and place it on a bed of lettuce with Pigs feet and chicken and a dressing poured over everything. If you do use the tongue on a salad or something that you don't cook it again in a sauce, then when you boil the tongue - boil it the 1 hour, remove the skin, and boil it again for another hour to an hour and a half. If you boil it the full 2 1/2 hours with the skin on, the meat will be greasy when served - either hot or cold.

One more comment. I did check my Spain cookbooks and didn't see churros there but I did see them in my Mexican cookbook and it did say they came from Spain. So did the beef tongue. I didn't bother to check whether tacos started in Spain, though.

Answer 2

I've enjoyed cow tongue, I've never had it cooked badly though. Every time I have had it, it was very tender and delicious. I don't think churros are traditional at all. However, for a school project, you may get many people grossed out and not want to try it but nothing is wrong with making people broaden their horizons. Or you could deep fry tortillas and coat them in cinnamon sugar.

Answer 3

Cow Tongue is the best meat, you can not over cook tongue
put it in pressure cook and onion for about 45 minute let it cool off take it out clean it peel out side of it out, then slice them up recook it again add any recipe you want you are going to love it. ( the only bad cow tongue is when it is undercook)

Answer 4

I have and probably would again. I should clarify in that I have had cow tongue in tacos that was chewy and gross but I have also had cow tongue tacos which only has the meat from the tongue. My grandmother makes tacos and burritos from the meat in the tongue, not the chewy part. Those I am quite fond of.

Answer 5

Tongue has a very coarse texture. Cook it the same way you would cook oxtails, for example. Season it with onions, scallions, pepper, achiote (to give it some color,) salt and cook it on medium heat for at least 1 1/2 hours. Add more water or beef broth as needed. When it is tender, lower the heat and add more onions, a pinch of thyme and more salt if needed.

Answer 6

Tacos are Mexican, not Spanish. Chocolate is South American. So neither is traditional.
Tongue is just a very lean beef. It can be dry and tough if overcooked.

Answer 7

I think it is very similar to pickled pork

BEEF TONGUE
Printed from COOKS.COM

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2 1/2 lb. beef tongue
1 onion, sliced
2 tbsp. pickling spices

Place tongue in pot. Add onions and spices. Cover with water. Simmer uncovered for 3 hours. Drain and cool. Remove skin and serve.

Answer 8

tacos r mexican and chocolate is south american!!!! try ham!!! :D