Corned or salted tongues are very little in use now. They spoil so soon, that it is scarcely possible to obtain one that has not been salted too late; and when quite fresh, they have a faint, sickening, doubtful taste. It is best always to buy them dried and smoked. Choose the largest and plumpest, and with as smooth an outside or skin as you can. Put a tongue into soak the evening before it is to be cooked; changing the water at bed-time. In the morning wash it in fresh water. Trim off the root, which is an unsightly object, and never carved at table. But it may be cut into pieces, and added to pea-soup, or bean-soup, or pepper-pot. Put on the tongue in a large pot of cold water, and boil it steadily for five or six hours, till it is so tender that a straw, or a twig from a corn-broom, will easily penetrate it. When you find that it is thoroughly done (and not till then) take it up. A smoked tongue requires more boiling than a ham, and therefore is seldom sufficiently cooked. When quite done, peel it carefully, and keep it warm till dinner. If well-boiled, it will seem almost to melt in your mouth. When you dish it do not split it. The flavor is much injured by carving it lengthways, or in long pieces. It should be cut in round slices, not too thin.
For a large party we have seen two cold tongues on one dish. One of them whole—the root concealed entirely with double parsley, cut paper, or a bunch of flowers cut out of vegetables, very ingeniously, with a sharp penknife—the vegetables raw, of course not to be eaten. Red roses made of beets, white roses or camellias of turnips, marigolds of carrots, &c. The stems are short wooden skewers, stuck into the flowers, and concealed by double parsley. These vegetable bouquets can be made to look very well, as ornaments to cold tongue, or to the end of the shank of a ham, or to stick into the centre of a cold round of a-la-mode beef.
Where there are two cold tongues on one dish, it is usual to split one to be helped lengthways, and garnish it with the other, cut into circular pieces, and laid handsomely round.
Cold tongue sliced is a great improvement to a chicken pie, or to any bird pie.
BAKED TONGUE.—
Having soaked a fine large smoked tongue all night, in the morning trim it nicely, and if it still seems hard, soak it again in fresh cold water till it is time to cook it. Then put it into a deep dish, (having trimmed off the root,) and make a coarse paste of flour and water. Cut up the roots into little bits, and lay them round and about the tongue, to enrich the gravy. Lay all along the surface some bits of butter rolled in flour, and season with a little pepper—no salt. Pour in a very little water, and cover the dish with the coarse paste. Bake it till the tongue is very tender. This you may ascertain by raising up with a knife one corner of the paste and trying the tongue. When done, peel it, dish it, strain the gravy over the tongue, and send it to table. Garnish with baked tomatos, or mushrooms, or large roasted chestnuts peeled.
For a large company have two baked tongues, one at each end of the table. Eat them warm.