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Times are tough

Posted at 8:33 AM on October 8, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (2 Comments)

But the meat we have been eating for dinner, not tough at all. Brendan had a 1/2 day the other day and spent the afternoon braising some beef for dinner. I came home and he was in a great mood and served us a fantastic dinner of potatoes, beef, swiss chard and a wonderful sauce over the top.

I could tell something was up because Brendan was so proud of himself and kept saying "I wonder how much this would cost in a restaurant." I took one bite and never looked back. My plate was finished in record time. I told him that that was the best darn pot roast I have ever had in my life. He laughed.

Apparently he thought that I knew when he said: "I am cooking something that takes a long time to cook."
I was supposed to get the clue when he mentioned that it was a "delicacy."
I am a bit slow when he told me that he: "had some trouble carving it just right."

This was no pot roast, this was beef tongue. Man was it fantastic. We pretty much only have the unwanted pieces left from the cow. In fact, we had to go back to our supplier to remind them that they left these parts out. Apparently, most people do. I don't know why, if the heart turns out as good as the tongue and liver have, I am in for a treat.

Thank goodness for Brendan, I would be lost with these parts.

Comments (2)

Hi Sareen,
I'm enjoying your blog posts as usual. I hope your Oktoberfest is a ton of fun. It sounds like a blast! I was really interested to read about your positive experience with beef tongue. We will be butchering our pig soon (as soon as the weather cools down a bit), and I am inexperienced with organ meat (preparing, cooking, or eating it), so I was planning to just give it all to my parents (we're splitting the pig with them). Now I'm having second thoughts; maybe we should hold onto that tongue, at least. I wonder how different pig tongue and beef tongue would be? In any case, I will request the beef tongue from the butcher the next time we get a side of beef, which will be sometime within the next month or two, I hope. Let me know if the heart turns out yummy as well. I can't convince my husband to eat liver (he's such a pansy), but he might go for heart. Maybe if I follow Brendan's lead and trick him... ;-)
Happy local eating!
Autumn

Posted by Autumn Long | October 14, 2008 11:53 AM

Do you ever have a moment when you think - oh, I had better get around to that? Well, that was what I felt about this post. I am going to just have to go ahead and assume that since you didn't respond to my simply thinking the answer to you that you really needed a visual form. I am with it now.

I think you should for sure use the tongue. I am not sure how different they will be. We got a whole pig this summer but they left out all the organ meat. I guess no one is confident in eating it.

Brendan braised it all day in a bottle of wine and some veggies and then pureed the sauce and put it over some mashed potatoes. It was great.

i think we will use the heart in sausages. Totally trick him and then he will be sold. Unless you have a meat slicer, then make thin thin slices and grill them with a little dipping sauce Korean BBQ style. That is my favorite way.

Posted by Sareen | October 18, 2008 10:31 AM