A Whole Lotta Lengua

Years ago, I lived in Buenos Aires with an Argentine couple. I remember that they always had an entire cow tongue in the refrigerator. It had taste buds and everything. They would cut it up and eat it on bread as a sandwich. At the time, I was young and could not imagine eating tongue. I never tried the tongue and that was a mistake. Things have certainly changed.

I believe that it is unethical to kill an animal and not use as much of it as possible. My husband and I do not believe in sport hunting, or even slaughtering an animal and only taking choice pieces. If you kill it, you eat it.

Every year, we work with a local rancher to purchase a cow. We pick up the live cow from the rancher and drive it to the processor. We discuss how we want the animal to be processed, in detail, with the processor. Throughout the years, we have stopped using numerous processors who steal bones or did not provide us with our entire animal. If we pay for it, we expect to receive the animal.
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While this is a very principled position, it also leads to a lot of interesting cuts of meat, including cow tongue.

​I am sure there a lot of ways to prepare cow tongue (aka “lengua”), but here is what we recently did. We placed the entire tongue into a crockpot while it was still frozen. Then, we strained stewed tomatoes that I had canned in the fall and put the tomatoes on top of the tongue. You could substitute store-bought stewed tomatoes. We seasoned it with salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, and fresh chopped garlic. We cooked it on low for the day.

It is important to remove the taste buds after the tongue is completely cooked. Leaving the taste buds and skin on the tongue will create a rubbery texture that is unappetizing. You can easily slice the taste buds off using a knife and it will peel in large sections.

Cut the tongue into pieces similar to a pork tenderloin. Serve the tongue on polenta or couscous with a salad. Be sure to scoop the tomatoes on top of the tongue as it has an amazing flavor.

With the left-over tongue (because there is sure to be some), we have made lengua street tacos. Cut the tongue into small pieces and sautéed it in oil. This allows the tongue to have a charred or crunchy edge. Heat two corn tortillas per taco on the gas stove. Place the lengua on the tortilla, add pinto beans, freshly cut white onion, and cilantro. Serve with a lime wedge.
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It is uncommon for American households to serve tongue, but it is truly a delicacy. A cow tongue produces at least two meals and is often discarded. In a time when people are hoarding toilet paper, should we really be throwing away deliciously edible parts of animals?