Langue de Bœuf Choucroûte

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •5 to 6-quart heavy Dutch oven with a close-fitting lid
• •Fine-mesh sieve and fat separator
• •4-quart covered saucepan for the choucroute
• •Potato ricer or food mill
• •2-quart broad saucepan for the Madeira reduction
• •Rimmed tray fitted with a roasting rack
• •Pastry brush for glazing

Instructions

1. 1

   Braise and peel

   Prepare and cook the tongue by Ordinary Braisings (No. 247), scaled to this single tongue and held in a pot that contains it snugly. Keep the liquor at the barest tremble until a thin knife enters the thickest part without resistance, usually 3½ to 4½ hours. A hard boil tightens the outer flesh before the centre softens, so lower the heat if the surface begins to bounce. Rest the cooked tongue only until it can be handled, slit the skin along the underside, and peel it away while warm. Trim the coarse tissue from the root. If the skin clings stubbornly, the tongue is underdone, not ruined. Return it to the liquor for 20 to 30 minutes. Ça se rattrape.

   A skewer can pierce an undercooked tongue and tell you very little. Use a thin knife and feel for resistance through the thick root end.
2. 2

   Clear the liquor

   Strain 3 cups of braising liquor from Ordinary Braisings (No. 247) through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Let it stand for 10 minutes, then lift off every visible trace of fat with a spoon or pass it through a fat separator. The source used muslin and patient settling; a fine sieve and separator are the honest home equivalents. If hard boiling has scattered fat into tiny droplets, set the bowl over ice until the fat gathers and firms, then skim again. Keep 1 cup for the choucroute and 2 cups for the Madeira sauce.

3. 3

   Braise the choucroute

   Taste a strand of sauerkraut. If it is aggressively salty or sour, rinse it once under cold water, then squeeze it dry; good balanced sauerkraut needs no rinsing. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a covered saucepan and soften the onion for 8 minutes without browning. Add the sauerkraut, juniper, bay leaf, wine, and 1 cup braising liquor from Ordinary Braisings (No. 247). Turn everything together, cover, and cook at a very gentle simmer for 75 to 90 minutes, turning it twice, until the strands are tender but still distinct. If the pan dries before the cabbage softens, add water a few tablespoons at a time. If it remains wet at the end, uncover and reduce the liquid rather than draining away its flavour.

4. 4

   Make the purée

   Begin the potato purée about 45 minutes before serving. Cover the potatoes with cold water, add the salt, and bring them gradually to a gentle simmer. Cook until a knife passes through without catching, then drain thoroughly and return them to the dry pan for 1 minute over low heat. Warm the cream in a small saucepan. Pass the potatoes through a ricer or food mill while hot, fold in the 6 tablespoons butter, then add enough hot cream to make a smooth purée that falls heavily from the spoon. Season with nutmeg and white pepper. Never use a blender, which works the starch into glue. If the purée begins to turn elastic, stop stirring and fold in the remaining hot cream with a spatula. Ça se rattrape, provided you stop in time.

5. 5

   Reduce the Madeira sauce

   Pour the remaining 2 cups braising liquor from Ordinary Braisings (No. 247) into a broad saucepan and reduce it at a lively simmer to about 1 cup, skimming any residue that rises. Add the Madeira and continue reducing until about 1¼ cups remain and the sauce coats the back of a spoon in a thin, glossy layer. Taste before chasing thickness. If the liquor becomes salty while the sauce is still thin, stop reducing and whisk in the optional arrowroot slurry; simmer for 30 seconds, no longer. Off the heat, whisk in the 2 tablespoons cold butter a cube at a time. If the butter beads on the surface, the pan is too hot. Whisk in a teaspoon of cold water away from the heat until the sauce comes together again.

   Madeira marked as cooking wine is usually salted and coarse. Use a bottle fit to drink; the sauce asks for only a small glass, and reduction repeats every flaw.
6. 6

   Glaze the tongue

   Heat the broiler and set a rack about 8 inches beneath it. Place the whole warm tongue on a rack over a rimmed tray, brush it with a very thin coat of Madeira sauce, and broil only until the surface turns tacky and glossy, 30 to 60 seconds. Brush and repeat three or four times. The source's eight or ten passes suited the gentler heat at the front of an oven; the home broiler produces the same gelatinous film in fewer coats. Watch the edges closely. If a coat darkens before it sets, lower the rack, wipe away any bitter spot, and continue with thinner coats.

7. 7

   Serve each part

   Remove the juniper and bay leaf from the choucroute and spoon it into a warmed deep serving bowl. Put the potato purée into a second warmed bowl and the Madeira sauce into a sauceboat. Slice the glazed tongue crosswise about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick, keeping a little of the glazed heel intact for the platter, and overlap the slices on warmed oval porcelain. Serve all four parts separately, as the source directs, so the glaze remains visible and each guest can take exactly as much sauce, cabbage, and purée as desired. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Buy a fresh or frozen plain beef tongue, not one that has been cured, smoked, or corned. A cured tongue brings salt and spice the Madeira reduction cannot hide.
• •Choose naturally fermented sauerkraut with cabbage, salt, and little else on the label. Taste before rinsing. Washing good choucroute automatically throws away the acidity that gives this rich plate its balance.
• •The tongue liquor carries both gelatin and salt. Degrease it completely and taste repeatedly as it reduces; the optional arrowroot is there to provide body when further reduction would make the sauce too salty.
• •Pour a dry Alsatian Riesling or a full Pinot Gris. The acidity meets the choucroute, while enough body remains for the tongue and Madeira sauce.
• •Leftover tongue is excellent served cold with cornichons and mustard. Chill it unsliced in a little of its liquor so the cut face stays moist.

Advance Preparation

• •Braise the tongue up to 2 days ahead. Peel it while warm, cool it promptly in strained liquor, and refrigerate within 2 hours. Reheat it gently in the liquor before glazing.
• •Chilling the braising liquor overnight is the easiest way to degrease it completely. Lift off the firm fat cap, then strain the liquor before measuring it for the choucroute and sauce.
• •The choucroute can be cooked 1 day ahead and reheated slowly with a spoonful of braising liquor. Its flavour becomes rounder after resting.
• •Reduce the braising liquor earlier in the day, but add the Madeira and cold butter shortly before serving. Hold the potato purée no longer than 30 minutes in a covered bowl set over barely warm water.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 900g)