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Tacos de Lengua – Beef Tongue Tacos

05.05.2022 by Jordan // Leave a Comment

sous vide tacos de lengua beef tongue tacos

We love whole animal butchery. It is delicious (most of the time, I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of straight liver, but I enjoy pâtés), it is economical, and it respects the whole animal. One of the biggest hurdles I’ve found to enjoying whole animal butchery is knowing what to do with all the different cuts, especially uncommon cuts like beef tongue.

I’m always fascinated when I watch our cows eat – they don’t have upper teeth, like a horse that can bite the grass down to the ground, so they extend their tongue, wrap it around the grass they want to eat, and then tear it back with their neck and pull in that bunch of up cycled sunshine and chew, and chew, and ruminate, and then chew some more. The tongue is long, covered in a thick, course membrane for grabbing and holding on to that grass without getting a raw, grass-cut tongue, and I’m pretty sure it is the second most used muscle after the heart (can’t find data on that though, so feel free to hit me with the fact checks). It is unlike any other part of the cow and doesn’t offer an intuitive solution to cooking it.

This is one of the many reasons that here at the farm: we love learning how different cultures use ingredients, especially ones that we don’t regularly encounter like beef tongue.

I flew to Las Vegas this weekend to celebrate my late sister’s birthday with my brother Ian. Moira would have been 32 this week – she died 3 years ago from a brain tumor. We all enjoyed cooking and trying new things, and Ian wanted to try cooking beef tongue, and using his new sous-vide for the first time. I did not pack beef tongue in my carry on – I’m pretty sure that would be an epic TSA story – so we visited one of the local Mexican meat markets and picked up some habñero pickled red onions and even spicier guacamole. Ha, I’ve been in Ohio away from proper spice levels for too long.

Because the tongue is such a strong, well used muscle, it needs a lot of cooking time to soften up. We rubbed a little oil on the tongue, added salt and pepper, and an onion, tomato, and cilantro to our vacuum seal bag, and set the sous-vide to 170 degrees. If you don’t have a sous-vide, you can use the more traditional manner of a long braise at low heat on the stove, but it was really nice to set the sous-vide and leave it for a day knowing it would be consistent throughout.

After 26 hours, we pulled the tongue, drained the juices from the bag, set the tongue in an ice bath to shock it and make removing the membrane easier. Once the membrane was removed, we diced the tongue into roughly half inch chunks. When you do this you’ll see how different the muscle structure of the tongue is than a steak or roast cut you’re more used to seeing. We kept the seasoning pretty simple and blended 4 chipotles in adobo sauce, an extra spoonful of the adobo sauce, a splash of lime juice, and a pinch of salt with half of the juices from the sous-vide bag. We put the rest of the juices in a cast iron skillet and sautéed some onion and added the beef tongue chunks and cooked them until they crisped up a little. You can add some of the chipotle sauce to the pan while doing this final cooking, or you can just drizzle it on the tacos.

Add your favorite toppings to your heated tortillas – we had the chipotle sauce, green onions, cilantro, guacamole, habañero pickled red onions, and cotijo cheese. Glorious! (We used street sized flour tortillas, but if you use corn you’ll probably want to use two tortillas per taco because the meat is wet, plus the sauce, and corn doesn’t hold that as well).

sous vide tacos de lengua beef tongue tacos
Print Recipe

Beef Tongue Tacos – Tacos de Lengua

Flavorful meat to elevate your next taco night
Prep Time45 mins
Cook Time1 d
15 mins
Total Time1 d 1 hr
Servings: 8

Equipment

  • Sous Vide Set it and forget it option
  • Dutch Oven Traditional method, which will require adding water or broth to submerge tongue, and more care in maintaining temperature.

Ingredients

  • 1 Beef Tongue Tongues vary in weight, but roughly 1.5-3 pounds
  • 2 tbsp Canola or Vegetable Oil Use more or less, depending on size of tongue
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 1 Onion cut into 2-4 chunks
  • 1 Tomato cut into 2-4 chunks
  • Cilantro 6-8 stems
  • 4 Chipotles in Adobo sauce use an extra spoon of the sauce
  • Lime Juice from one lime, or a splash to taste
  • 1/2 Diced Onion
  • All your favorite taco toppings

Instructions

  • Preheat sous-vide to 170. Or, if using dutch oven, preheat water or broth sufficient to cover tongue to roughly 170.
  • Rinse tongue, pat dry, rub with oil, salt, and pepper.
  • Add tongue, onion chunks, tomato chunks, and cilantro to vacuum bag. If using dutch oven method, add all directly to broth.
  • Submerge tongue and cook for 24 hours.
  • Remove tongue and reserve juices from the bag.
  • Set drained bag in an ice bath for 15 minutes.
  • Remove the membrane from the tongue.
  • Dice tongue into 1/2 inch chunks.
  • Add chipotle peppers and lime to half reserved liquid, blend, and add salt to taste.
  • Sauté diced onions in remaining liquid and add tongue. Cook down until the meat begins to crisp up. Feel free to add some of the chipotle sauce to this final cooking, or just add to tacos as you are making them.
  • Toast your tortillas.
  • Add your favorite taco toppings and fiesta!

Categories // Blog Post

belvederefarms

This time of year I worry about too much grass gro This time of year I worry about too much grass growing too fast before I can get the cows over to eat it down and make the most of it.
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As a grass farmer, it’s the very best kind of problem to have: grass tall enough to get lost in.
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Speaking of which: can you find the baby? Comment with a 👍 when you do!
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#grassfarmer #grassfedbeef #iamyourfarmer #farmraisedkids #intensiverotationalgrazing #grassfed #grassfedbutter #farmlife #homesteadlife #supportlocalfarmers
That milk pail foam tho 🤩🤩🤩. . Those firs That milk pail foam tho 🤩🤩🤩.
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Those first few weeks hand milking can be disheartening. Dribbles and squirts, milk running down your wrist, sticky fingers, and sore forearms. 
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Milking is a skill. No one is good at it right away. It takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get. The faster you get, the more sure and even your squirts.
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And then one day, there will be foam in the bucket and you’ll know you’ve arrived. Your squirts are fast and firm and sure and the sustained pressure of all that milk hitting the pail makes the most gloriously frothy foam.
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Keep at it friend. Whatever skill you’re working on now. Just because you’re not that great at it right now doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing or that you won’t get better.
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Keep working. Keep trying. Keep learning. The foam will come.
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#farmlife #milkmaid #modernmilkmaid #milkmaidlife #milkcowlife #handmilking #rawmilk #homesteadskills #traditionalskills
Transcript of a real-life conversation we had this Transcript of a real-life conversation we had this morning:

Me: Whaa? Why is there a frozen turkey on the counter?!

Seamus (4): Because I like turkey and chicken meat.

Me: So you went out to the barn…

S: …and got in the freezer. And brought in a turkey.

Me: Oh, love. We can’t cook a turkey until we have a stove [kitchen reno still on going 🤦‍♀️].

S: Well, then you can cut it up and cook it piece by piece in the microwave.

Me: Actually, that’s not going to work.

S: (looks outside) Well, it’s raining today but tomorrow when it’s not raining we can make a fire and cook it outside on the fire.
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Ever the problem solver, he was full of ideas. 🤣🤣
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I did finally convince him to put it back in the freezer and wait until we have a stove - with the caveat that we cook it for his birthday.
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#kidssaythedarndestthings
#farmkid #farmlife #homesteadmama #lifeonthefarm #farmraisedkids
We have two cows in milk right now: Sandy (old fai We have two cows in milk right now: Sandy (old faithful and best friend, there on the left) and Clara (new to our farm and momma to Ruby).
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How much work is two cows vs. one? I was so nervous about adding a second cow because the additional time/labor was an unknown, but when it comes right down to it, it’s about 20 mins more time milking. That’s it.
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Everything else is pretty well the same. It takes the same amount of time to bring them in to the milking shed. The same amount of time to move them to fresh grass. It still takes under an hour door to door to milk & do what needs done, and even less for evening milking.
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And since our oldest boy (14) helps milk the majority of the time, that extra 20 minutes doesn’t often figure in. Many hands (and even just one extra pair!) make light work.
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It does take a little more time to deal with the milk: more time straining, more time washing jars, more cream to skim, more butter to churn. But if more cream and butter are the cons, I’m here for it.
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What would you say is the biggest obstacle holding you back from getting a family cow?
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#familycow #milkcowlife #keepingafamilycow #milkcow #homesteadlife #rawmilk
Mud pie hearts. . Just because this day or month o Mud pie hearts.
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Just because this day or month or season or year is hard does not mean you are not heard or seen or loved. There is beauty all around, if we have eyes to see it, hearts open to feel it, and wild, barefoot, dirty, outdoor-loving farm kiddos to deliver it.
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#farmkids #wildandfree #mudpie #mudseason #springonthefarm #homesteadmama #farmmom
My cup - ahem. shirt - runneth over. Same same. . My cup - ahem. shirt - runneth over. Same same. 
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I gather eggs every morning and again every afternoon. Farm life is a constant reminder that there is #alwayssomethingtobethankfulfor 
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#farmfresheggs #farmeggs #rainboweggs #farmlifebestlife
Hello Friends! Jordan here, and it has been a hot Hello Friends! Jordan here, and it has been a hot minute. I went to Las Vegas last week to visit my brother and we made beef tongue tacos. I love using the whole animal and this was a fun process with a delicious outcome. You can check out the blog to get the recipe. Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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#wholeanimalbutchery #wholeanimalcooking #beeftonguetacos #tacosdelengua  #cincodemayo #grassfedbeef #homesteadkitchen
T-minus 3 days until our first frost and we’re s T-minus 3 days until our first frost and we’re spending these lovely fall afternoons gathering in the last of the garden.
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Today: dried beans (Christmas Lima and Cherokee Trail of Tears), Reagan’s sunflowers and luffa, the last of the tomatoes (gah! they just won’t quit!), and the rhubarb.
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Tomorrow: chopping, freezing, cooking, and canning.
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Months from now: bellies full of homegrown garden goodness.
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#homegrown #gardenlife #farmlife #preservingtheharvest #garden #fallgarden #ohiogarden #growyourown #sunflower #familygarden #kidsinthegarden #gardeningwithkids #happyfall #harvesttime #harvest #fallharvest
Hello, fall. 👋 You’re long overdue and oh so Hello, fall. 👋 You’re long overdue and oh so welcome.
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This morning was the first I stayed in a long sleeve shirt to milk and didn’t have sweat dripping down my face.
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It’s the first the temperature has dipped below 60* (even though the humidity is a resilient 100% what with the rain, mist, and fog).
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Technically, our first frost date should have been this week, but Ohio’s holding out and it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen for another two weeks at least.
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In any case, it finally (finally!) feels like fall and oh am I ever so here for it. So much so that once the must-do chores are done (yogourt, butter, beans and laundry), I fully intend to curl up on the couch with a cuppa and read.
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#fallonthefarm #hellofall #fall #fallleaves #fallscene #farmlife #farm #ohiofarm #smallfarmcharm #simplehappycountrylife #homesteadmama #home #ilovefall #october
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