How to boil Ox Beef Tongue? – Bovine Tongue

The Boiled Beef Tongue recipe or the ox tongue recipe ends up tasting delicious and is easy to cook traditional East Indian snack. Serve as a side, appetizer, or even in a sandwich, and you’ll be a happy chappy!

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One may think it’s the weirdest food, but tongue is eaten in many cuisines all over the world and is considered a delicacy too. In our culture, it’s everyday food. Well, we don’t eat it every day, but we eat it ever so often since it can be cooked in so many different styles.

Which tongue you ask? We used to eat cow beef tongue before the ban in Mumbai, India. But now we cook ox beef tongue.

Ox tongue, neat’s tongue, or beef tongue is one and the same – a tongue of a bovine animal like a Bull or Ox.

You can also eat pig tongue or pork tongue, though we haven’t tried that yet. At least not in the years I remember. The oldies say they have, but that’s them! Told them they need to make some for us so we can try it!

Although many people would say they don’t eat tongue cause they are grossed out by the looks of it, tongue meat is quite beneficial as it has quite a few nutrients and is perfect for the keto diet.

And although it looks the way it does, it tastes a lot like regular meat and not like offal. You know offal, the bits like the heart, liver, kidneys, stomach or gizzards, trotters, udders, goat testicles, or lungs that are also eaten around the world and in India too.

One of the easiest methods of cooking tongue meat is to boil it. Here’s all you need to do in this simple recipe for cooking tongue. And once you’ve mastered the simple boiled tongue, you can always graduate to making a stir fry of ox or beef tongue.

What Ingredients Do You Need To Boil Tongue?

All you need to boil the tongue is the tongue itself, water, and salt. You can use cloves and cinnamon if you wish or even peppercorns and bay leaves for a bit of spice. We add these in different proportions every time.

How To Boil Tongue?

Start by washing the tongue to remove any stray bits of the outer skin from it.

Notes: 1. We generally buy ox tongue that has already been skinned, the butcher shop guys have a better way of removing it and sharper knives too.
2. Use either two small tongues of 0.6 to 0.8 kg or one large tongue of 1.2 to 1.4 kg.

Place the tongue in a pressure cooker and add salt and water. Optionally for added flavour, you can add cinnamon and cloves as we have, or any other spices that you like.

Make sure the water is level with the height of the tongue, and don’t forget to add salt! Add more water to suit your pressure cooker. It needs to have the tongue fully covered when you start.

Allow the tongue to cook in the pressure cooker for about 20 minutes on high flame after the first whistle (in traditional cookers) or once it has reached full pressure (in modern cookers).

After resting for a bit, open the pressure cooker and let the steam out. Once the tongue cools, remove it from the cooker and cut it into fine slices.

You can use these slices to serve as is or sprinkle with pepper or make sandwiches with butter and mayonnaise. Just delicious!

Cooking Tips And Tricks

• Add additional spices like cloves and cinnamon if you want more flavour in the tongue.
• You could also add pepper, peppercorns or bayleaves.
• The water level should be equal to the height of the tongue. So add more to suit your pressure cooker.

Questions About Cooking Tongue

How Long Can You Store Boiled Tongue?

You can store the boiled tongue in an air-tight container for about 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator or about 3 to 4 months in a freezer.

What Else Can You Cook Using Beef Tongue?

Beef tongue can be made into many dishes like tongue sandwiches, roast tongue, tongue moilee curry, or even corned tongue.

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