Too Much Tongue
The questionable joys of cooking variety meats at home.
By Peter Zinn
Being a Maine type of guy I try to keep it real, especially with my food. I buy meat from local farms. I go for the wholesome: livers, lamb shanks, and kidneys. I avoid the prepackaged and cook from the ground up. I stay true to the season. But now I've got a serious problem. The house stinks of brined tongue. It's positively nauseating. I don't know how it came to this. The smell! My god, the smell! The windows are fogged up, the dishtowels need to be burned, even the sofa reeks. And yet, simmering away on my stove is a four-pound beef tongue (What kind of animal has a four-pound tongue!? It's as big as a child's arm! Was this cow from the Paleozoic era?) and it refuses to soften up.
