At the meat stalls, for some reason, the tongue, pig or beef, never lasts long.
But in conversations between young housewives, one often hears that they don’t like to cook their tongues, because there’s a lot of trouble with them, that it’s not always possible to cook the pig’s tongue correctly, that after cooking it is difficult to clean.
Some women frankly admit: if the initial stage of processing is successful, then the maximum that they know how to cook is the sauce for boiled pork tongue, and what else can be cooked from this part of pork carcass, they simply have no idea.
Let's understand.
How to cook a pig tongue - reveal the secrets of a successful purchase
The tongue is part of the pork carcass, which belongs to the by-products and at the same time is considered dietary meat, and therefore - the most valuable. Offal - meat of the second grade, according to the standards of merchandising expertise. Second grade - in our narrow-minded understanding sounds like second freshness - and immediately a negative attitude to the product is formed at the subconscious level, taking into account the words of a famous character in Bulgakov's novel, that freshness (variety) should be only the first, which brightly and collectively reflect the mentality of our people in relation to food. But such a classification clearly does not fit the language. Therefore, among offal pork language, nevertheless, belong to the first category.
Having seen languages that look unattractive in the meat department, do not rush to leave, choosing a tenderloin, bacon or ham. Compare, at least the prices, and think that you can make very interesting and tasty dishes from the by-products - not worse than from the meat of the first category, and the significant difference in price will be a nice bonus.
Buying meat products in a specialized trading network, you can not worry about their verification by the sanitary-epidemiological service. But even here there are “pitfalls”. Try to choose chilled, not frozen meat. Besides the fact that there is a risk to buy frozen water for the price of meat with meat, it is never known how many times, in fact, the product has been frozen. When re-freezing, in addition to the loss of valuable nutrients, the meat loses its characteristic texture, and it is suitable, at best, for making minced meat, as a batch of natural biomass. The second option remains - buying pork tongue on the market The tongue should be red on the reverse side, be moderately dense, without suspicious odors. In this case, of course, the meat is more likely to be fresh, but you should not hesitate to ask the seller a certificate from the veterinarian. Buy meat in the markets where sanitary control is necessary to save yourself from serious health problems. Remember that most animal diseases are easily transmitted to humans, and swine flu is the smallest nuisance that can be obtained by eating untested meat.
The cooled tongue is stored no more than a day, and the frozen one can be stored for up to 30 days. Longer storage dramatically reduces the beneficial properties of the product. Before freezing, tongues are soaked, washed thoroughly and dried, removing excess water.
How to cook pork tongue until readiness - proper and healthy food
If we recall that every food must not only satisfy hunger and fill the stomach, but, first of all, replenish the body's stores with necessary vitamins, micro- and macroelements, useful organic compounds, without burdening energy for digesting food and not creating “ strategic reserves ”in the form of lush fat under the skin, then pork tongue, with low calorie and high nutritional values - the best option for people of different age categories and professions. Nutritionists strongly recommend that this product be used by pregnant women and children.
For an incentive to listen to the advice of nutritionists, we attach some of the most powerful arguments about the nutritional properties of pork tongue.
Pig tongue is different in the structure of tissues: it does not contain intercellular fluid, or connective tissue consisting of collagen fibers. Under the influence of high temperatures, the collagen collapses, compacted, which gives rigidity to the meat. That is why after cooking, the tongue retains a soft and delicate texture. Collagen is absorbed by the body slowly, under the influence of pepsin, while the meat containing connective tissue must be thoroughly crushed. It is known that that children at an early age cannot chew on coarse food thoroughly, so boiled tongue is the best option to ensure the child's body is full-bodied and easy to digest protein. Features of the structure of the protein in the pig language are useful for older people when restoring the body in the postoperative period.
Animal protein quickly saturates the body, quenching hunger. In the pig language it contains up to 14%, despite the fact that the product is 75% water. Its caloric content does not exceed 210 Kcal per 100 g of product.
100 g of boiled pig tongue provides the body's daily need for zinc, which is involved in the production of insulin. Therefore, the product is useful for people suffering from diabetes. It contains the main micro-and macronutrients needed by the human body. Of the vital vitamins, the stock of which must be replenished daily, the pig's tongue contains a full set of vitamins of group B, as well as vitamins E, PP.
The nutritional value of pork tongue is only slightly inferior to the quality of pork of the first category.
How to cook pork tongue - the subtleties of preprocessing
There are certain difficulties with the preparation of the language for heat treatment, but, as they say, “the eyes are afraid, and the hands are doing”.
If a tongue with a part of the larynx is bought, then it must be cut off. It is better to stand in the water to facilitate the work with washing - the top rough layer contains a lot of dirt and germs. Change the water while soaking. It should be cold to avoid spoiling meat. The colder the better. After 3-5 hours, take a brush and wash the tongue under a stream of cold water. For reliability, you can sprinkle with baking soda, but then you need to wash it well, so as not to fall into the pan.
Boil the water and put the tongue in it, boil for 10-15 minutes. Now drain the water, wash the pan, tongue, and put it in the same pan again. This technique will help improve the quality of the broth, which can then be used to prepare the first courses. Fill with cold water and put on medium heat. As soon as the broth begins to boil, remove the foam. Make the fire even smaller and place the prepared parsley, celery, carrot roots. Wash the onions, cut off the root and remove only the upper scales. If you are going to use broth after boiling the pig's tongue, then the top layer of the bulbs will give it a beautiful golden color. Of the spices, be sure to add bay leaf, a mixture of peppercorns, if desired, you can add the seeds of dill, coriander or cumin. Add salt only after the meat is already quite soft. The heat treatment time, as always, depends on the size of the piece. Adult mascara tongue reaches a weight of 500 g, the minimum raw weight is 250 g. Based on this, the cooking time is 1.5 - 2.5 hours. The duration of heat treatment is also influenced by the age of the carcass at the time of slaughter. It is possible to check the readiness of the tongues with a fork: if the meat is ready, the teeth will pierce the flesh easily, without effort. After removing the foam, boil the pig's tongue in the mode of languor, be sure to cover it with a lid to save as many vitamins as possible. That's all the wisdom!
Next, remove the tongue from the broth. Broth can be drained when it cools down, and immerse the tongue for 2–3 minutes in ice water so that the film to be removed is more easily separated from the pulp. Use a sharp knife to make small notches, being careful not to touch the flesh. Remove the surface layer. If the pork tongue is well cooked, it will be easy to clean, but if you haven’t guessed time for a while, you will have to remove the skin with a knife. Take the knife in your right hand, blade inside. Pry off the film with the blade of the knife, pull it with your left hand, cutting with the knife in your right hand. The back of the hands hold the tongue, pressing it to the working surface of the table.
The next stage is cutting, but this is already the easiest and most pleasant part of the job. Just work with a sharp knife, and everything will work out. The shape and size of the pork tongue cutting depends entirely on the recipe in which the tongue will serve as an ingredient. But already in boiled form, it can serve as a great snack if you serve it, cut it with plastics, with horseradish sauce, mustard, cranberries, mushrooms, capers, and, in addition, serve a complex vegetable side dish.
How much to cook pork tongue until ready and what to cook?
Having considered in detail the question of the preliminary stage of preparing the language, we turn to culinary creativity.
Dishes from the pork tongue, as well as a great variety of dishes from other by-products, served the poor as food for a long time, because the rich nobility preferred the most tasty pieces of meat. This state of affairs was peculiar to different nations, who ate meat, so the recipes of pork tongue are abundant in many national cuisines. Cookers and Russian cooks made the greatest contribution to the development of pork tongue dishes. It is not for nothing that they say that the needless act is cunning. From offal they cooked appetizers, first courses, they became an excellent raw material for making toppings in pies, pancakes, dumplings, minced sausages. Later, salads appeared in the Russian and other cuisines, in which pork tongue either became emphasized by the main ingredient, or was successfully used instead of meat of the first category, but at the same time, the dishes from such a substitution do not get any worse. Older people remember how dishes from the language are firmly included in the menu of restaurants as a special delicacy, and already professional technologists of the Soviet catering have significantly expanded the range of dishes from the language and other by-products.
Recipe 1. How to cook pork tongue - aspic
Composition of products:
- Language 3 kg (net)
- Bay Leaf
- Onions 2-3 medium heads
- Pepper, fragrant and black
- Celery and Parsley Roots
- Carrots, sweet (large) 5-6 pcs.
- Green peas (fresh or frozen) 0.5 kg
- Garlic
- Dill (seeds and fresh stems)
- Salt
Bone set:
- Beef knee joints or tails 2 kg
- Pork ears, skin, tibia 3 kg
- Chicken backs 3-4 pcs.
- Parsley leaves (for decorating a dish)
Preparation:
Choose tubular bones with cartilage, as they contain a large amount of gelling agents so that you do not have to add gelatin to the broth.
Wash meat products, soak in cold water for 7-8 hours. In a large saucepan, place the beef and pork (except the tongue). Fill with cold water, 10 cm above bone level. Set the boil by turning the stove to a minimum. Collect the risen foam. In an hour and a half, put the prepared pig tongues. Let it boil again and take care to remove the foam in time. After another 1.5 hours, add the chicken backs. For the aspic is better to choose the meat of old cocks. A set of meat of different animals will make the broth taste more saturated and bright.
30-40 minutes after laying the backs, add the peeled roots to the broth: cut parsley and celery into large pieces; boil the whole carrots, and remove the top layer of peel from the onions and cut off the roots. 20 minutes before the end of cooking, put a bay leaf in a saucepan, 10-15 peas each, tied in a bunch of fresh dill stalks, and fennel seeds. Salt it. Peel the middle head of garlic, chop the cloves and throw in the filler. Turn off the stove. Get out the tongues and put them in cold water. Peel and cut into cubes.
Put the carrots on a plate - when cooled down, cut into cubes, the size of a pea, you can cut decorations with the help of a carving figure knife.
While the filler cools down, boil the green peas in salted and sweetened water. Drain and temporarily set aside in a separate container. Wash the parsley and prepare the leaves for decoration.
Remove the bone from the broth, strain it through cheesecloth or nylon sieve. In prepared deep plates or special shapes, place the leaves of the rooster on the bottom and figural ornaments of carrots. Top with tongue, peas and carrots. Gently pour the broth, trying not to disrupt the shape of the layouts of meat and vegetables. Move the molds to the fridge for a while. When it hardens, add the remaining broth and then remove it in the cold. When serving the form, hold it for a few seconds in hot water and turn it over in a dish or portion dish.
Recipe 2. How many boil the pork tongue until ready for a complex snack
Composition of products:
- Boiled tongue, pork 1.2 kg (net)
- Bone broth 1.5 l
- Gelatin 20 g
- Beef liver steamed 600 g
- Onions browned with 200 g
- Butter 100 g
- Carrots 300 g
- Eggs boiled 60 g
- Garlic 30 g
- Mayonnaise 120 g
- Cheese, hard 250 g
- Greens 150 g
- Spices
- Pickled onions (small onions)
Preparation:
Read the broth recipe above for details. Ready broth strain. Separate 250 ml of broth and dissolve 20 g of gelatin in it. When dissolved, combine with the main mass, mix and pour into a large round dish, which will serve a snack. For convenience and beauty, the frozen broth cut into diamonds. Slice the tongue into 12 thin slices. Each of them roll up a cone and secure at the junction of the edges of the skewer. Inside the cones from the pastry bag with the figured nozzle, seed the liver pate.
Preparation of pate:
Combine the fried pieces of liver with browned onions, carrots (200 g), season with spices and add softened butter. Smash the blender to a pasty consistency.
Peel the boiled eggs. Zigzag off the larger side of the protein. Remove the yolks and, with the cut pieces of protein, fold them into a bowl. Add grated cheese, garlic and mayonnaise. Egg-cheese mass is also smashed into a paste, which stuff the proteins cut in the shape of a bell. Also, as well as liver pate, deposit the cheese mass with a pastry bag inside the proteins.
Head onions in a marinade of cold boiled water, sugar, salt, fruit vinegar and 50 ml of fresh beet juice. Make chrysanthemums out of bulbs. To do this, cut off the root part to give the “flower” stability. Make cross-shaped cuts from top to bottom, towards the base. Bend the “petals” outward, separating the layers of the bulbs. Lay out the cones and bells in a circle, alternating between them and decorating with leaves of parsley or other greens. Place the flowers of pickled onions in the center of the dish.
Recipe 3. How to cook pork tongue - zrazy, potato
Composition of products:
- Mashed potatoes 900 g
- Boiled pork tongue 600 g
- Onions, browned 100 g
- Spices
- Flour 100 g
- Eggs 4 pcs.
- White crackers, breading 120 g
- Sour cream (for filing)
- Garnish - fried mushrooms
Preparation:
If yesterday’s mash is left, then there is a great opportunity to save time for its preparation. Add in it 2 eggs, flour, leaving 2-3 spoons for deboning semi-finished products. Mix the potato dough well and let it brew for half an hour so that it gets the necessary viscosity. Finely chop the onion in a hot frying pan. Use creamy margarine for roasting. Add chopped pork tongue to the pan when the onions are browned. Add the necessary spices, at your discretion. Put the minced meat in the plate and let cool.
On the working surface, sprinkled with flour, form a cake of mashed potatoes. In the center, put the cooled minced from chopped tongue. Glide the edges, giving zrazam oval and convex shape. For convenience in the process of modeling, lubricate your hands with oil, or soak them in water.
Beat 2 eggs into the foam. On a plate, pour the crackers. Dip the semi-finished products in egg foam and roll in breadcrumbs. Repeat the operation.
Fry zrazy potato with tongue deep-fried.
Serve with sour cream or sour cream sauce.
How to cook pork tongue - note for hostesses
The pig's tongue is beautifully stored in the freezer, and to preserve its properties in the best possible way, seal it beforehand in an airtight container.
Pig tongue - the benefits for health and budget, and its taste depends on the ability, but most importantly - on the mood, to a greater extent.
