Anyone familiar with true Mexican fare may have sampled “tacos de lengua,” or cow tongue tacos. Tongue sounds like an odd part of an animal to eat, but it’s one of my favorites and it’s delicious. No fat to cut off, no gristle to chew through, just very tender meat.
Recently, a friend of my filled his elk tag, and he generously gave me the tongue.
Here’s how we cooked it:
Elk tongues seem to be a bit smaller than cow tongues, but there’s still plenty of meat on it.
Cut any bones or connective tissue off the back end of the tongue and rinse it off. Place the whole tongue in a crockpot. Add the following ingredients: 1 onion (cut into wedges), 4 to 8 garlic cloves, salt to taste, and enough water or broth to just cover the tongue. You can also add any other vegetables you’d like, such as carrots, celery or potatoes.
Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
Remove the tongue from the crockpot and place it on large cutting board. Slit the rough outer skin and remove it from the entire tongue. It should peel off easily–that’s how you’ll know the tongue is done. If it doesn’t peel easily, it may need more cooking time. Discard the outer skin.
Shred or cube the soft inner tongue meat. We like to cube it for tacos, but some like to shred it for empanadas.
Elk tongue had a slightly different flavor than beef tongue. Not bad, just different. It was also a bit less tender, but perhaps it simply needed a longer cooking time in the crockpot. Still, it was very good. Hopefully, I’ll be fortunate enough to have my own elk tongue to cook some day. And the heart, and brain, and liver, and the rest of the elk, too…
Calls of the Wild 