Hutchinson Beef Tongue with Raisin Sauce

Beef tongue doesn’t get the love it deserves on modern American tables, but in Pennsylvania Dutch and Jewish-American kitchens it’s still a respected Sunday cut. The meat itself is incredibly tender once it’s simmered low and slow, with a beefier flavor than any other cut of cow, and the raisin sauce is the classic sweet-tart accompaniment.

The technique is dead simple: drop the whole tongue in a pot with onion, peppercorns, thyme, parsley sprigs, celery leaves, salt, and pepper, cover with boiling water, and simmer covered for three hours. The long bath turns the muscle melt-in-your-mouth tender and creates a deeply flavored stock at the same time.

The peel is critical. After cooking, the thick outer skin pulls off easily while the tongue is still warm; let it cool and the skin clings on stubbornly. Trim the roots from the back end and slice the tongue thin against the grain.

The raisin sauce builds on the cooking stock: brown sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, raisins, lemon, and butter. Sweet, tart, lemony, and studded with plump fruit.

Chef Tips

• Buy from a butcher who can vouch for the source; tongue is offal and freshness matters more here than for muscle cuts
• Trim any visible glands or fat from the underside before cooking; they make the stock cloudy
• The cooled cooked tongue keeps in its stock for up to 3 days in the fridge if you want to slice it later
• For a smoother sauce, plump the raisins in hot water for 10 minutes before adding them to the sauce

Variations

• Make a German-style currant sauce in place of raisin: substitute red currants and a splash of red wine
• Serve with horseradish cream and rye bread for a deli-style platter instead of the raisin sauce
• Use the leftover poaching stock as a base for soup or risotto; it’s a rich free byproduct