Cassell's dictionary of cookery

a fresh ox tail, disjoint it, and cut it into pieces two inches long. Put these pieces into boiling water for a quarter of an hour,, then soak them in cold water for three-quarters of an hour. Drain the pieces well, and wipe them with a soft cloth. Place them in a saucepan, cover with a pint of stock or water, and bring them gradually to the boil. Remove the scum as it rises, and put in with the meat two sliced onions, two sliced carrots, a piece of garlic about the size of a small pea, a bunch of parsley, a small sprig of thyme, a bayleaf, three cloves, and a little salt and pepper. Simmer gently until the tail is tender and the meat parts easily from the bones. Lift the meat out carefully, strain the sauce, stir into it a glass of sherry or madeira, a pinch of cayenne, four or five button onions, a tea-spoonful of strained lemon-juice, a table-spoonful of pickled gherkins finely minced, and a little brown thickening. Put back the pieces of meat, let them simmer half an hour longer, and serve them piled up in the centre of a hot dish with the gravy poured over them. Time, three hours to stew the ox tail. Probable cost of ox tail, from Is. to 2s., according to the season. Sufficient for three persons. Ox Tongue. — Ox tongues are generally preferred either pickled or smoked, though they are occasionally cooked when fresh. Recipes for both are given. A fresh tongue, after being trimmed, should be soaked in plenty of cold ox TONGUE. water for one hour before it is cooked, a green tongue just taken out of pickle for four hours, and a salted and dried tongue for twenty-four hours. In choosing a tongue, select a plump one with a smooth skin, which is a sign that it is young and tender. If the thin part of a tongue is not eaten it should be preserved and dried. It will grate like hung beef, and will be found excellent for flavouring omelettes, and also for making tongue toast. Ox Tongue, Boiled. — Soak the tongue. Put it into a stewpan with plenty of cold water, an onion stuck wuth cloves, and a bunch of savoury herbs. Bring the water very gradually to the "boil, then draw the saucepan to the side, and simmer gently from three to four hours, according to the size. When the tongue is done enough — this may be ascertained by pushing a skewer into it ; if the skewer will enter easily, the tongue is done— plunge it at once into cold water, when the furred coating can be easily drawn off. If the tongue is to be ox (489) OX eaten hot, wrap it in greased paper, and warm it in hot water for about twenty minutes, after taking off the skin. Glaze it over two or three times until it looks clear, and send it to table with mashed turnips, boiled carrots, or stewed cabbage, or with tomato or piquant sauce. If it is to be eaten cold, place the root end against a board, and put a strong fork into the top and the end in order to bend it into a nice shape, and let it remain until it is firmly set. Glaze it, and before sending it to table ornament the root with a neat frill of cut paper. Or, roll the tongue— that is, turn the thick part into the middle, and press the tongue into a plain round mould just large enough to hold it — put a dish with a weight upon it, and let it remain some hours. Glaze round it, and carve it hke a fillet of veal.