Beef Tongue and Cheeks (Телешки език)
Grass fed beef tongue and cheeks cooked sous vide, enough meat to feed 8-10 people. Both the tongue and cheeks are tender and delicious – perfect for lettuce-wrapped tacos or just as emergency protein.
Ingredients
| 1 | whole grass fed beef tongue from U.S. Wellness Meats | |
| 3 pounds | 1.4 kg | grass fed beef cheeks from U.S. Wellness Meats |
| 2-3 tablespoons | 30–45 ml | Chili 9000 seasoning (or your favorite dry rub) |
| — | Kosher salt | |
| — | freshly ground pepper | |
| 4 tablespoons | 60 ml | Kerrygold unsalted butter |
| 2 tablespoons | 30 ml | bacon grease |
| — | Fleur de sel |
Instructions
Here's how I made it: I took out the beef tongue and cheeks, dusted them with Chili 9000 seasoning, salt, and pepper, and vacuum sealed each packet with a pat of butter. I plopped the sealed bags into the water oven set at 158 F and let them steep for 48 hours. Two days later, I took out the meat and dried them off with paper towels. I peeled off the outside of the tongue and trimmed away any stray taste buds and goo. I sliced the tongue crosswise into ½-inch pieces before frying them in bacon grease over medium high heat. The tongue "steaks" take a couple minutes to crisp on each side. After I plated the tongue, I sprinkled fleur de sel on each piece. The beef cheeks were much less work. All I did was dry off each piece and sear them in bacon grease on each side. Then, I seasoned with salt and pepper and shredded the meat with a fork. Both the tongue and cheeks were tender and delicious – perfect for lettuce-wrapped tacos or just as emergency protein.