You gotta either love it or hate it. There is no gray area on this one, at least not in my opinion. Lengua was one of the most requested dishes in the run-up to the Christmas holidays and I had good intentions about featuring it but just never got around to it. 
The procrastination was partially a result of my ambivalence towards this dish. As much as I eat, explore, search and document food, I am actually NOT that adventurous, and am somewhat squeamish about odd animal organs… I am not fond of brain, dinuguan, even sisig, liver (except duck or goose), kidneys, bull’s testicles, and odd chicken parts and bits. I think the only internal organs I consume on a large basis are intestines as part of sausage links… It’s a childhood thing, I know, even a mom-bias against most offal of most sorts (though she adored liver) , and frankly, a psychological shortcoming brought on by the knowledge of the parts location in the host animal…worse, I am a texture kind of guy and if something doesn’t feel right, it ain’t going down well…
But I was determined to do this dish justice and make it myself. The first step was to find a decent recipe from which to base my attempt… Most of the recipes 
I found describe braising the tongue in a tomato based sauce for several hours until tender. I found many similarities between these braising liquids and Chris Bautista’s excellent recipe for Morcon so I decided I could definitely do this. Historically, animal tongues have featured as a delicacy in many parts of the world, so it is not unusual at all to enjoy the tongue of a cow or bull (not sure they differentiate that at all). On first inspection, the tongue itself is just godawful whopping HUMONGOUS!!! Yikes, I have never purchased a cow tongue before and the heft was just stunning. It was so big and so darn graphic that you could make out the bumps on the tongues surface, that I can only assume are its equivalent of taste buds. Why cows would need taste buds when they only eat grass is beyond me…but then again maybe they can tell the subtle nuances of grass raised on volcanic soil versus sandy loam or whether the grass was at its peak or slightly past its prime…
Back home, I followed instructions from a recipe attributed to Carmen Gonzalez, in 
The Philippine Cookbook, to plunge the humongous tongue into some boiling water and after about 10 minutes, take it out and scrape off the white residue on the skin. I have to be honest; seeing this tongue “naked and raw” was not good for my already psychologically challenged anti-tongue mindset! I then coated the tongue in flour and browned it over high heat in a large oval dutch oven with some olive oil. Remove the tongue and make the braising liquid by sautéing some onions and garlic in a large oval dutch oven, add some good white wine, canned plum tomatoes, some brown sugar, Kikkoman soy sauce, some apple cider vinegar (1 tablespoon) and several bay leaves. Make sure to check the taste of the braising liquid as it sometimes has a tendency to get a little sour which you can balance out with some more brown sugar and/or more soy sauce. Some folks Stick the tongue back into the pot (the liquid should come about half way up the tongue) and simmer over a low flame for roughly 2 hours or until the tongue is tender.
Remove the tongue and boil down the sauce to thicken it and add chopped button mushrooms and olives and cook for a few more minutes. Season with salt and pepper. It is important to taste the sauce at this juncture as the salt and pepper can still be adjusted. 
Next, slice the tongue and lay it out on a warm platter. Ladle some of the braising liquid onto the pieces of tongue and serve hot. The verdict? EEEEWWW!!?! The sauce was superb, but I just COULD NOT get over the spongey texture of the tongue!! And as my mind raced faster with the thought of eating one of those “BODY PARTS,†I just couldn’t eat much more than a few pieces of the lengua. It was definitely worse that I saw the tongue throughout the cooking process and could identify the part under the tongue that would move it around. I can even eat more well-made callos (tripe) or tripa in a Florentine market than I can lengua made in my own kitchen… So which camp do you fall into, love it or hate it???
54 Responses
hahaha!! I also didn’t want to eat lengua, but when we were at Cafe Juanita (Brgy. Kapitolyo) it was what my friend wanted (we always share food) so that’s what we ordered. I surprisingly liked it =) It is worth a try MM. It wasn’t spongy at all =) Now I am tempted to try cooking it using my Osso Bucco recipe.
I don’t think I could ever eat lengua again after seeing that photo. Eeeewwww.
i love lengua that is really soft to the bite. i believe this entails long simmering/cooking. i tried cooking this organ once but the texture wasn’t what i really wanted. i am an adventurous eater and i love eating organs. be it isaw, adidas, kidney, gizzards, liver, etc. really yummy!
i just can imagine what you’ve gone through preparing this dish. a funny post though! :)
Beef tongue in either asado, estofado or pastel is part of my family’s celebration food, though I admit my fondness is a late bloomer. Lots of work involved in preparing it. I for one now find the meat – like in roast beef after all the white and other particles underneath it have been removed. In Jewish culture – smoked beef tongue sandwich is wickedly good in rye bread. It is a prized deli piece of meat and not every deli place offers it only hard core Jewish deli places and the price is kind of steep.
I love it! I guess you’re absolutely right about it being psychological. If it wasn’t for my granny who taught me how to cook lengua in so many different dishes at a young age, I couldn’t have love it too. I hated it at first! The smell, cleaning up, lengthy time before it gets tender and slicing. About being spongy, sometimes the way it was cooked can attribute to such. After you sliced the tender meat, put it back in the sauce. The meat tends to absorb the sauce, then it almost melts in your mouth that you will possibly forgot that it is an organ,lengua and spongy. Or try cutting the meat in cubes like in menudo, make a roux diluted with broth for the sauce, add cubed ham and mushrooms,carrots and bell peppers. Its like a stew and most kids love it more than lengua estofado or lengua con champignon. Sometimes I even add rice to it.
Depends on the innards/organ. Other than pate and foie, I don’t like liver (smell and texture). Brain is slimy and mushy, tongue I can eat a very little bit if it’s smothered in sauce and there are other vegetables to eat it with. Intestines: sausage casings and chicharon bulaklak (so long as it’s well prepared). Can’t eat tripe, visuals and texture. Spleen and kidneys, nope, no way. Heart, same thing. But I can eat sisig, or any dish that they are incorporated into so long as it doesn’t stand out as a taste or texture. I suppose I could always douse them in sauce/chilli or pickles. Sacrilege! :)
LOVE IT!!! (But hate cleaning it, too! Icky is the word for raw tongue! Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.)…But when it is cooked…YUMMMMM!!!
The “vintage” (hehe!) resto Ambos Mundos has a very good lengua on its menu. No frills, just a good tomato based sauce and fried potato slices, worth going all the way to Florentino Torres in Manila just to eat it!
the first time i attempted to make lengua, i was so afraid i could ruin it, but it really was very easy, I boiled the lengua in beef broth plus some additional herbs and flavoring veggies for a very long time then cook separately the sauce, i removed the rough layer of the tongue then sliced it and served it with the sauce, i do two kinds of sauce, one is tomato based and another is cream based. . . for leftover boiled lengua, i cut it into strips and make some ox tongue salad with pommery mustard viniagrette plus onion and bell pepper slices, my dad and uncles enjoy this for “pulutan”, its really good. . .
mm, for those who hate tongue-action with cows, the most popular alternative cut to beef tongue is the oyster blade, more commonly known as kalitiran. its the closest in terms of texture and bite. but we use the shin or kenchie (because of the beautiful fat artwork at the core of the meat, hehehe).
speaking of tongue-action, this reminds me of a college joke wherein a guy, whose lengua fell off his plate as he was slicing it, says to his date: “oops… slip of the tongue”.
Marketman,
Very, very off topic but here’s a current link about the ASEAN Summit Lamps.
Ombud freezes payment for Asean summit lamps
what a humongous tongue… I like lengua and I can tolerate offal. :)
aaah stupid dead link. here’s the url if the link I posted does not work.
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/net/2007/03/06/ombud.freezes.payment.for.asean.summit.lamps.html
Love it! Love it! Love it! My mother cooks it using tomato-based sauce, but I prefer mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes.
For someone who has already eaten frogs, dog (unwittingly! please don’t hate me), sawa, monitor lizard (and its egg), etc, eating internal organs really do not bother me. Though, I must say, I make sure that there are no rough surfaces anymore on the tongue.
MM, look delicious and i’m tempted to try cooking this next weekend. Once thing worries me though, is tongue falls under the same category as internal organs, since internal organs normally has high uric acid and cholesterol and I suffer from very high cholesterol and uric acid levels. oh what the heck anyway, I like it and I want to enjoy eating once in a while. cheers..
Lengua definitely belongs to my list of culinary delights. Makes me wonder, though, since I’m not really “adventurous” when it comes to exotic or otherwise unusual food. Guess it has to do with the initial experience: my grandma made a mean lengua, and that sealed it for me. My initial taste of chicken feet, on the other hand, was truly horrible: tough, undercooked and all-around gross; now I can’t stand the sight of them. What can I say, it’s tough to let go of your prejudices/traumas/whatever, MM. I’m with ya. ;-0
I am person who loves to try and taste! Even when the food appears ghastly in my eyes. My love for food and dishes are one of the reasons why I am staying as tourguide/server at La Cocina.. I had my first lengua experience at that place too! Even we are not allowed to eat (that’s a rule!), still we are finding chances to taste some *sometimes* LOL.
I dont think I would ever want to try lengua :(, especially after seeing that raw tongue above.
Before, I havent seen an actual raw tongue, but each time I saw cooked lengua, I could always imagine the cow licking its nose with its tongue, making me back-off from trying it. And now that I’ve seen a raw tongue on a platter, uh-oh, that didnt help!
My mom has a terrific recipe for lengua that she serves on special days only. She orders the ox tongue specially, and she would pick the best pieces that they would reserve for her. From what I remember it includes boiling the tongue first (whole), then marinating in olive oil and wine overnight. Next day, slice it up. Make the sauce with mixture of the marinade, whole button mushrooms, olives. Add the meat and sauce and heat through. Fantastic, although if you are planning to reheat the leftovers you have to remove the olives since they would make the sauce saltier. I’ve been eating it since I was a little girl and for a long time I never thought you could cook tongue any other way.
To offset the ick factor you can try getting a much larger piece next time (my mom usually buys the tongue with a large portion of meat still attached at the base) and when you slice it up, do not include around an inch or half inch of the tip. And there is a way to slice it for better appearance of the individual slices but will ask my mom about that.
While I’ve seen tongue in the grocery, when they’re frozen and bundled up they look quite different from the photos above (which are quite nightmare-worthy). =)
Now I’m having a memory flashback of this great scene from children’s book “Ramona Age 8.” Our young heroine was *horrified* to find out that her parents had served tongue (they were cost-cutting by buying “unwanted” pieces of meat). When she and her sister scraped off the gravy off their dinner, they freaked out at the sight of bumps on the meat.
Let’s just say I always pass it up if it’s on the table in parties. It’s psychological. I probably will even like it if I taste it or if I eat it blindfolded. Just the thought.
Aren’t you supposed to peel off the outer ‘skin’ where all the taste buds are? I remember reading such an instruction in a recipe. I grew up eating lengua so it doesn’t bother me one bit. I actually love it’s texture, or any tough meat that has been softened by braising or simmering for that matter.
A japanese grocery in the metropolitan avenue area in makati sells raw lengua that has been cleaned and sliced. It looks good, bright red like a regular steak portion, virtually unrecognizable as a tongue. Maybe that will help some of you overcome the ick factor.
It is daunting to look at, and the very first time i tried prepping a whole tongue for a stew, I squinted a lot, and tried to deceive myself into finishing the job. It worked! I tried peeling it raw but it was a bit gory and slippery to accomplish. I prefer to boil the entire thing for more than half an hour, and then peel off the outer membrane. After peeling off most of the parts that would remind me of a well-formed tongue, I brown it in olive oil or butter and proceed with a traditional tomato-based stew recipe similar to what you’ve done. Simmering it in a heavy pot or a Dutch oven spells the difference. Halfway through the process, I take it out, slice it into half-inch widths, put it back into the stew until the sauce is reduced to a nice and thick consistency. You will then be rewarded with tender medallions of what used to be a whole tongue, slathered with a sauce of tomatoes, olives and mushrooms. I will try to find my Dad’s recipe and share it with you, if you are interested. I love tulip’s idea of dicing the tongue, and will definitely try it!
Marketman,
I would echo Sam’s way of preparing lengua. You should boil the tongue first and then scrape off the tough outer skin. Then the braising and seasoning begins. You are left with tender, succulent meat. This is how we do it in Cavite city and I won’t eat lengua with the outer covering still on it.
Just a suggestion.
mmmm, love it! my mom makes the best lengua con setas (mushrooms), sometimes over mashed potatoes, or topped by a rich, flaky “pastel” crust. the key is to braise the tongue till it’s melt-in-your-mouth tender….pastel de pollo and lengua con setas are my all-time christmas favorites.
i love lengua! my mom”s version is THE best though i don’t really know the recipe, except that campbells mushroom soup is used in the sauce. have had lengua in spain, france and grilled in korean restaurants but they were no match to the pinoy version.
I love lengua too. Can’t really stand the scrapping and the cleaning. My mom did this before but since she’s gone back to the great kitchen up there, I finally learned to do it. I love the pastel version. Hard to prepare but worth all the effort. I don’t really cook lengua as much as I would want to because I really dread the first step. But it’ll be on my plate if it’s served
Love it!!! :) This has been a favorite dish since childhood…and it is its texture that made me love it so much. So, so soft! I remember as a kid I would wonder why we couldn’t just have lengua instead of regular meat. Yup, I am that crazy about it! To this day :) And the sad part is I never had it at home because I was the only one who liked it! So a big thank you to you Marketman…for going through what must have been quite a slasher-flick kitchen experience for something you don’t even like, so that lazy people like me, who actually do like lengua, can have a step by step illustration of how it’s done :)
I like most “laman loob” except liver (unless goose or duck). Love intestines, will eat chicken’s but like pork’s better (chicken intestines are puny). Love, love, love tripe! I like brain too. Had the most amazing kidneys in Spain! Ok, I am officially an offal girl :)
I’m not fond of most offal either, with the (apparently popular) exception of liver, but I love lengua! Like some others here, it’s probably because I grew up with my lola’s excellent lengua — actually, this was one of the recipes we most regret died with her. We ate at Paloma recently, where they serve the lengua with a yummy potato gratin. My mom said it was similar to my lola’s. I also had a delicious pastel de lengua from Una Mas once. That dish might be easier for non-lengua lovers to eat, since it’s diced, mixed with vegetables, and hidden under pastry.
Btw, thanks for the tips on the lima beans…it turned out great! And so simple too :)
I love your lengua story because it’s just like mine! About 15 years ago, I was so homesick for lengua. The lengua standard in my head is mushroom cream sauce, prepared by the matriarch of the Tiglao family in Mabalacat. Did I dream I would come up to that level? No, but I was desperate enough to try. So I ordered tongue from my now-closed excellent butcher on 2nd Avenue. When I went to pick it up, he made me swear to him that I knew how to cook it, or he would not give it to me. Of course I swore, but I never touched a raw tongue before, much less seen one. It looked just like yours, in fact, I thought it looked like a boot, so I called it ITALY. And I had to boil it, and peel of that skin, ewwwwwww, I can still get grossed out just thinking about it. (And my husband still teases me by saying “remember when you cooked ITALY?) So I cooked it, and fed it to my husband and friends, and they loved it, but I could not eat it myself! Now when I want a quick lengua fix, I go to an Argentinian restaurant, or a Cuban, or a Brazilian. They have it tomato sauce style, but it satisfies. I have cooked lengua again successfully, for special occasions, but I ask dear husband to do the boiling and peeling, then I take over. I also have an aunt in Chicago who can’t cook, but brought the Nora Daza cookbook to the owner of a latin food restaurant. Now the owner cooks lengua for her Nora Daza style anytime she wants. But I’ll just have to forever fantasize about my Mabalacat Mother Tiglao lengua.
It’s my family’s specialty when we were still in the food services industry. Anything lengua is requested from us during dinners until now. Many of the patrons aren’t internal organs eaters but they willingly eat what we offer. I don’t know if it’s plain coincidence but my granny’s specialties are mostly offal dishes(including dinuguan, which I still can’t eat) and that were all she used to serve in her restaurants in Batangas City before she moved in Manila.My other grandma from Pampanga cooks it just the same.
I just thought of sharing this for those who want soft lenguas. In preparing any lengua dish, clean it up with some vinegar and salt to get rid of the slime then wash it thoroughly. If you’ll be braising it in a tomato based sauce, you may marinate it in some soy sauce and pepper overnight. Or do not initially marinate it, just submerge the meat on a rolling boil water and let it boil for 3 mins then discard the water. Fill again your cooking casserole with water, soy sauce, pepper, bay leaves etc. Let it boil/simmer until very tender (when you can pierce the meat with a fork and it comes off without any resistance). USE FORK please! Remove the tongue and let it cool(for easier slicing), scrape off the white coating and the icky parts downside the tongue-it should not be eaten(due to off smell). It looks like fat deposits if you looked at it closely and there are bumps(globe tissues)etc. Then slice it, don’t brown it in oil once it is sliced because the meat tends to be compact and a little dry and makes the meat more spongy since it won’t quite absorb the sauce. Put back the sliced very tender meat to the sauce and let it boil again. Still for those who have icky-ness towards the offal, I suggest you ask your cook to dice/cube it all up when cooking. Serve it together with Tokwa’t Baboy, Pancit, Lengua Risotto (my suggestion earlier),Pastel and Special Adobo. You wouldn’t notice it. :)
it’s a love-hate thing with me. i love the taste, be it cooked with cream, tomato sauce or the pastel. but i can’t get over the texture of some parts (the “root” of the tongue–where it’s been pulled off from the mouth) and do not let me see how it was cooked. i want it to look like cut up meat talaga.
my cousin used to love lengua, until she got the part that really grossed her out: the tip of the tongue–it was a bit curled, like the cow is making belat. yecch. but we had lengua in my wedding (almost struck it out of our menu), one of the best i’ve tasted, if not the best. cooked by kat arce-kuhn of cuillere. yum.
I love lengua! And for someone who doesn’t like it , it looks like you did a pretty good job! The hubby though hates it with a passion. It’s the texture , he says.
Hello??? Nobody told me to remove the skin!!! Chris if you are right then I missed a critical step, though I didn’t EAT the skin when I cut it up on my plate…I was avoiding the taste buds. As for tender lengua, I think it is mostly due to a slow gentle braising…say two hours long. And WOW!!! Most people like the stuff based on these comments, but just try cooking the darn thing…YUCK factor is SERIOUS!!! :)
I love eating lengua but yes, I don’t think I can cook it (lol).
The confusing thing about lengua is… you don’t know if you are tasting it or it is tasting you. Haha!
I love lengua!! Though I have never tried to cook it myself. I think I will try callos first, and when I got that right, lengua will be up next :)
Wooohooo, I love the bloggers of this site! Mackenzie, that was such a witty, funny comment! And, Jules, “tongue action with cows?” Eeeeuuuwwww! Funnier still is MM’s incredulity upon finding out you have to peel off the top layer where all the “slime” (as tulip calls it) and tastebuds reside! Almost turned me off eating lengua altogether! (But then again, NOT. Still love the stuff but hope the ones I have eaten were properly prepared! Hehehe!) You made my day, guys n gals!
Marketman, you are not alone! I, out of curiosity, made one last Xmas for my brother in-law who was visiting. I had to muster all the courage I got just to peel off the thingy on the tongue, euuwww. It was a veal’s tongue and didn’t take long to cook. But, the result was very encouraging since my in-laws and my family loved it , although I had to keep them away from the kitchen while “working on it”… but, I’d eat callos anytime. The French from Bretagne and the Spanish are crazy about it.
You should try the lengua at Alba Restaurante in Makati. I usually don’t eat tongue, but I do when I’m at Alba’s.
would you guys know how faster the process would be if i use a pressure cooker?
Was looking for a recipe because I bought a beef tongue. Love lengua either asado with mushroom sauce or estofado!!!
The pictures shown above are sooooooooooooo unfair for this special & expensive delicacy. If you got the tongue in a better meat shop you wouldn’t be that scared. I suggest that you boil the tongue and when it is 3/4 tender take it off the pan and put it in your ref for a minimum of 6 hour or more if you wish(Just don’t let it stay in the frig’s for a day) Then you can go on cooking the tongue but first do youe sauce and like you did, let the sauce penetrate the tongue once tender take it off and let it cool, slice and I bet it will have a very good appearance not like your picture. But then if you still don’t like it then you’re one of the lucky person not to crave for this very expensive dish and if you are my guess I wouldn’t count you when I do the dish and I will have some savings. Another tip when you boil use you ur imagination and put some herbs to change the smell,the taste of the herbs will stay & penetrate your oxtail! Do it in white sauce and it will taste great the only problem is that it is a family secret recipe so I can’t share. white sauce with mushroom. If you know how to do it right then you will star loving the very expensive dish. :)December 31, 2007(12:40am)
i like to eat lengua estofado….some one can give me recipe?
angie, did you bother to read the post up top before wondering about a recipe? The recipe is described in that post… and VIKI, how can this be an expensive dish when tongue is sold for a very reasonable price at most sources in Manila???
I just made a batch of lenggua two or three days ago. Bought a frozen beef tongue (541.00 php) when I was at the grocery. I used water with beef broth boil the tongue for a good 2.5 to 4 hrs to soften up the tongue. Then I removed the outer skin cover of the tongue. I then sauteed the whole tongue in butter with garlic and onion. Whe the tongue is browned I poured some of the broth just enough to almost cover the tongue. I then poured in a can of cream and also a can of cream of mushroom soup. The carrots and potatoes and green peas are added to garnish.
hahaha! oh i love Viki’s comment…loved the reply she got even better..LOL!
MM, as usual you have the goods. just googled hydrangea propagation this morning and now lengua and here you appear so high up on google!
I love cooking for my family and would like to try something special for them. My boss use to make lengua estofado cooked in red wine in a low fire for ages….. Somehow I am a bit shy ask his recipe and how to clean the tongue …..I search on several sites and its eeeeewwwwwwwwwwww……..I cant really do it……As an alternet to ox tongue I tried this brasilian beef usually used for morcon and added about 250g liver softened and creamed , cooked like how lengua estofado being prepared…. It turn out almost same taste …with scraping that whitish thing on the tongue….Imagine cows saliva and the smell of their breathe…ewe……
just love lengua estofado!!!
I can’t help laughing with all this comments you guys posts here. In my childhood years, my mother usually prepares this dish whenever there’s occasion at home. It really is nice, but the one that my mother prepares, usually cooked with fried banana’s or potatoes. Now, how about pigs tongue.
hi…can you send me pls. a recipe of pork and beef embutido….
I really don’t like toungue but you shouldn’t let that stop you from enjoying such a wonderful dish. This dish also taste REALLY good with oxtail. Thats what I use and my family ( including my fillipino husband) loves it :)
If you dont like tounge this dish tastes very good with beef oxtail too! :)
I tried your recipe for lengua (but tweaked it a bit) and it came out very good! I skipped the olives coz the kids are not crazy about it. I added carrots and leeks to the stew and processed the sauce in the blender before adding mushrooms. The sauce came out thicker than in your picture and I got to get my kids to eat a bit more vegetables. Thanks MM!
By the way, removing the white outer covering isn’t as hard if you just use a really sharp knife and cut it off. You peel a bit of meat with it but you can get the job done in 5 mins.