My Slow Cooker Beef Tongue Adventure
Alright, so I finally decided to tackle beef tongue. Heard it was great in the slow cooker, makes it super tender, you know? Honestly, it looks a bit weird straight out of the package, kinda like a giant, rough… well, tongue. But I was committed.
First thing I did was give it a really good scrub under cold water. Gotta get any gunk off. Some people trim stuff, I didn’t really see much to trim on mine, so I skipped that. Just a good rinse felt right.
Then, the easy part. I plopped that whole thing right into my slow cooker. Didn’t brown it or anything fancy. Just straight in. I figured, let the slow cooker do the work, right?
Adding the Flavor Bits
I didn’t want to get too complicated. Kept it simple:
- Tossed in a rough chopped onion, maybe like four or five cloves of garlic I just smashed with the side of my knife.
- A couple of bay leaves went in.
- A palmful of black peppercorns.
- Some salt, maybe a tablespoon? Eyeballed it.
- Then I poured in enough water just to cover the tongue mostly. Some people use broth, but I just went with water this time.
Letting it Cook
Put the lid on, set that sucker to low. And then I just walked away. That’s the beauty of it. I let it go for about 8 hours, maybe a bit longer. The house started smelling pretty savory after a few hours, kind of beefy and rich. Definitely knew something was happening in there.
Checking it was easy. I poked it with a fork around the thickest part. When the fork went in super easy, with almost no push back, I knew it was done. You want it really tender.
The Peeling Part
Okay, this is important. I carefully lifted the tongue out of the slow cooker. It was HOT, so used tongs. You gotta peel that thick outer skin off while it’s still pretty warm. If you let it cool down too much, it’s a real pain. I used a small knife to get it started, and then mostly just used my fingers (carefully, again, hot!). It peeled off surprisingly easily, leaving the nice meat underneath. It looks way more appetizing once peeled, trust me.
Finishing Up
Once it was peeled, I let it cool just a tiny bit more so I could handle it better. Then I sliced it up. Some people shred it, but I like slices. You can slice it thick or thin. The meat was incredibly tender, just like everyone said. Seriously, melt-in-your-mouth stuff.
What I did with it? This time, I just sliced it and we ate it plain with a bit of salt and pepper first, just to appreciate the flavor. Super good. The leftovers? Made amazing tacos the next day. Just chopped up the slices, fried them quickly in a pan with some seasoning, boom. Best tacos.
So yeah, making beef tongue in the slow cooker? Bit weird at the start, but super easy process overall. The long cook time makes it foolproof tender. Definitely doing this again. Cheap cut of meat, feeds a bunch, tastes awesome. Worth it.
