Idle hands...

blind99 · September 2017

Animal heads and construction materials... considering where this could have gone, your outcome is spectacular!

20stone · September 2017

A quick "lessons learned" from our cook (in no particular order)

Building the pit, and doing the full noggin old school was a hoot. I am glad we did it (once, at least)
That being said, I bang out as good/better barbacoa using beef cheeks jammed into an SV, so I am unlikely to do the pit thing again, unless its for a children's party (putting the fire pit next to the bouncy castle really raises the stakes)
Like with many things in life, the key to tortillas is proper moisture content and lubrication. We benefited from having an expert on the former (my FIL's buddy Juan) and good improv on the latter (@caliking's dad). Also, we started w 2kg of dried corn, and still have enough dough to do this again for a few more days.
Lengua was great, and I'd do it as a stand alone in a minute. Recipe below
When someone brings a bottle of mezcal, and that someone is your FIL, and it was given to him by his best friend, and his best friend is there with you, and his best friend is Mexican...

Lengua tacos

Bag individually with a coarsely chopped onion, seasonings (cumin, cayenne, other peppers, salt, whatever floats your boat), and a knob of fat (we used lard because, duh)
SV 12 hours at 185F (note - I was working from a recipe that called for 170F for 24 hours, and we just cranked it up because we didn't have 24 hours. I would not change a thing on our timing, as we loved the result)
Ice bath - 15+ minutes
Reserve the liquid from the bag
Peel the tongue like a banana (with a paring knife)
Chop into tasty sized bites (< 1/2" cubes)

(note - if you have family/guests that are offal curious, but squeamish, you should do all the preceding steps out of their line of sight)

(cont) saute some onions (I'd guess half an onion per tongue, some garlic would be nice, too. we sauteed in bacon grease, because, duh)
put a quick sear on the tongue bits, and dump into your holding pan (keeping it warm)
dump the bag liquid into the pan and reduce/deglaze - pour a little over the tongue bits
serve on freshly made tortillas (plus the usual condiments - pickled or minced onion, cilantro, lime squeeze, salsa...but no need to overdo... the lengua speaks for itself)

@caliking, please fix whatever I forgot.

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. It was a fun, if exhausting cook. My weekend summary is now, "We cooked Sunday lunch"

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/jv/gwmmsorhhamd.jpg

caliking · September 2017

20stone said:

A quick "lessons learned" from our cook (in no particular order)

Building the pit, and doing the full noggin old school was a hoot. I am glad we did it (once, at least)
That being said, I bang out as good/better barbacoa using beef cheeks jammed into an SV, so I am unlikely to do the pit thing again, unless its for a children's party (putting the fire pit next to the bouncy castle really raises the stakes)
Like with many things in life, the key to tortillas is proper moisture content and lubrication. We benefited from having an expert on the former (my FIL's buddy Juan) and good improv on the latter (@caliking's dad). Also, we started w 2kg of dried corn, and still have enough dough to do this again for a few more days.
Lengua was great, and I'd do it as a stand alone in a minute. Recipe below
When someone brings a bottle of mezcal, and that someone is your FIL, and it was given to him by his best friend, and his best friend is there with you, and his best friend is Mexican...

Lengua tacos

Bag individually with a coarsely chopped onion, seasonings (cumin, cayenne, other peppers, salt, whatever floats your boat), and a knob of fat (we used lard because, duh)
SV 12 hours at 185F (note - I was working from a recipe that called for 170F for 24 hours, and we just cranked it up because we didn't have 24 hours. I would not change a thing on our timing, as we loved the result)
Ice bath - 15+ minutes
Reserve the liquid from the bag
Peel the tongue like a banana (with a paring knife)
Chop into tasty sized bites (< 1/2" cubes)
(note - if you have family/guests that are offal curious, but squeamish, you should do all the preceding steps out of their line of sight)

(cont) saute some onions (I'd guess half an onion per tongue, some garlic would be nice, too. we sauteed in bacon grease, because, duh)
put a quick sear on the tongue bits, and dump into your holding pan (keeping it warm)
dump the bag liquid into the pan and reduce/deglaze - pour a little over the tongue bits
serve on freshly made tortillas (plus the usual condiments - pickled or minced onion, cilantro, lime squeeze, salsa...but no need to overdo... the lengua speaks for itself)
@caliking, please fix whatever I forgot.

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. It was a fun, if exhausting cook. My weekend summary is now, "We cooked Sunday lunch"

Agreed. I would be tempted to decrease the SV time a bit. The muscle of the tongue felt a little on the squishier side when I was peeling them. And the sauce made from the SV bag juice is a MUST!

Tips for prepping tongue: Cut a longitudinal slit in the membrane before throwing it in the SV bag. Helps some of the spices get into the meat, and makes it easy to peel after SV. Fingers work better than a knife IMO.

That mezcal was phenomenal. We probably could have hit another bottle if we had one. But then I would probably be passed out in the G'raj Mahal.

NC_Egghead · September 2017

Wow guys. What an epic cook and collaboration!

Spring Hen · September 2017

I love you guys and know you are fantastic cooks but I have to pass on this one. I grew up eating barbeque tongue but I can't handle seeing that whole head....

Thatgrimguy · September 2017

That's one hell of a cook boys!! Great job. Wow.

caliking · September 2017

Judy!!

How have y'all been?? We've missed you and @Spring Chicken around these parts

I hear ya though. There's a reason why this went down when the boss ladies were out of town!

The Cen-Tex Smoker · September 2017

"the lengua speaks for itself"

indeed it does,

SciAggie · September 2017

@20stone @caliking I'm impressed with the fact you nixtamalized your own corn. That's commitment...
I appreciate the comment about questioning if it's worth the trouble. For sure we do most of these kinds of cooks for the fun of it. Some cooks are better "the hard way" ; Paella comes to mind. Other cooks like this may or may not taste better due to the method, but it is definitely off the charts in terms of fun.
My wife's out of town this week. I may have to play...

Legume · September 2017

First, plant some corn...

20stone · September 2017

Legume said:
First, plant some corn...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/5b/jf0xp3zada67.jpg

That logic is how this got started. Note - Meenie (pictured right) subsequently met with his inevitable fate, and has been mostly eaten by now. Eenie, hidden behind Meenie, is on deck.

SciAggie said:

@20stone @caliking I'm impressed with the fact you nixtamalized your own corn. That's commitment...
I appreciate the comment about questioning if it's worth the trouble. For sure we do most of these kinds of cooks for the fun of it. Some cooks are better "the hard way"

I would start with dried corn again. It was easy (enough) to find, easy to do, released a great smell in the house and produced great tortillas. I used a slightly cheaty recipe (using masa harina to get the moisture content correct) so I wouldn't have to buy yet another grinding device, and I loved our production line banging them out.

You are right about paella. Part (or most) of the pleasure of paella is the extended exercise of making it.

caliking said:

We already have an exponentially yugerer cook planned. The seeds have been planted...

We are always in for trouble with time on our hands (like this weekend). It only gets worse when we also have mezcal IN our hands.

20stone · September 2017

Bonus coverage - leftovers

Counting from the bottom:
- leftover noggin sauce (puréed peppers)
- leftover tortilla
- leftover grilled chicken thighs
- Mexican cheese mix
- more noggin sauce
- another tortilla
- leftover noggin and lengua
- more cheese
- more noggin sauce
- another tortilla
- a little more noggin sauce
- leftover onions
- queso fresco

It may be pretty spicy, given the makeup of the sauce (a huge number of pequin peppers).

Regardless, I have a few pounds of it to eat. Wish me luck

Carolina Q · September 2017

20stone said:

the lengua speaks for itself)

Well, it would, wouldn't it?

Killit_and_Grillit · September 2017

Y'all, this is top shelf stuff here. Looks incredible.

Was that blue tortilla blue corn or black bean? I may have missed it. This was an overwhelming post to read with 3% battery life

The Cen-Tex Smoker · September 2017

Probably don't need to hear any more about noggin sauce. thanks.

20stone · September 2017

Killit_and_Grillit said:

Y'all, this is top shelf stuff here. Looks incredible.

Was that blue tortilla blue corn or black bean? I may have missed it. This was an overwhelming post to read with 3% battery life

Blue corn. Tougher to work with, but it's nice to mix it up.

20stone · September 2017

These leftovers smell pretty good

Larrycg · September 2017

Being fairly new to this forum, every time I log on I find another post that sucks me in further and further. This is one of them!

Unbelievably epic cook fellas!!

Entertaining and looks delicious!

On a side note... As my wife looks over my shoulder at this she says you need to find friends like that to cook with... so you can go destroy their wives kitchen!

Mattman3969 · September 2017

@20stone & @caliking - not being familiar with the way these heads come to you, do they still have all the brains and muscles in tact? If so do you eat or not?

BTW - hats off for one of the most off the charts cooks if seen on here!!

20stone · September 2017

Mattman3969 said:

@20stone & @caliking - not being familiar with the way these heads come to you, do they still have all the brains and muscles in tact? If so do you eat or not?

@caliking can speak to sourcing, but the noggings came complete with brains, eyes, tongues and facial muscles. We took out the tongues to prep separately, and left the eyes and brains with the noggin, but did not eat them. I have never done brain before, and wasn't confident we had our brain game down.

However, a woman in my office may be the biggest non-zombie brain enthusiast I've come across, and I pledged to give them a go if I could get her mom's recipe.

I didn't see where the eyes ended up, but I draw the line there, delicacy or not, and I've (recently) eaten buche gorditas

Mattman3969 · September 2017

I'm sure I could get on board with brains and head muscles but don't know if I could do an eyeball.

caliking · September 2017

Mattman3969 said:

@20stone & @caliking - not being familiar with the way these heads come to you, do they still have all the brains and muscles in tact? If so do you eat or not?

BTW - hats off for one of the most off the charts cooks if seen on here!!

Re sourcing the heads - the first place I had lined up only had veal heads. Frozen, and with little cheek meat compared to the heads we ended up with. Backup source was a meat processor that's not far from us. They do goats, lamb, chicken, pig, beef . Driving up, they had goats roaming in the front pasture that looked damn tasty.

A customer of theirs was about to get busy breaking down a whole cow in the back.

I walked in, asked for 2 cow heads, and they let me pick from about 15 or so unfrozen heads hanging in the cooler. I selected the 2 that looked fresh and with more cheek meat than the others. Took all of 10 mins.

When I was picking the meat off the noggins, I was surprised at how meaty the extraocular muscles were, and there was a good bit of meat on the face besides the cheek meat. You pick the glands and other tissue out (that's when Pops said "but you left a lot of good stuff behind"). Didn't eat the eyeballs because beef eyeballs are chewier than I like.

And passed on the brains too because I'm not into prions. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

caliking · September 2017

20stone said:

These leftovers smell pretty good

I did not quite appreciate earlier how much noggin sauce went into your creation.

You're gonna need more than salve tomorrow...

20stone · February 2018

I saw this article in the local paper (Houston Chronicle):
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Backyard-Bar-B-Que-last-of-a-South-Texas-barbacoa-12605741.php

This is the last place in Texas (and probably in the US) that does old-school, noggin-in-the-dirt barbacoa.

Interestingly, they just rinse and wrap, without any seasoning at all. I prefer our approach, which involved a nice rub of spices to cook in (plus the old school banana leaves, etc).

GATraveller · February 2018

20stone said:

I saw this article in the local paper (Houston Chronicle):
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Backyard-Bar-B-Que-last-of-a-South-Texas-barbacoa-12605741.php

This is the last place in Texas (and probably in the US) that does old-school, noggin-in-the-dirt barbacoa.

Interestingly, they just rinse and wrap, without any seasoning at all. I prefer our approach, which involved a nice rub of spices to cook in (plus the old school banana leaves, etc).

1000 times YES!!!!!

caliking · February 2018

20stone said:

I saw this article in the local paper (Houston Chronicle):
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Backyard-Bar-B-Que-last-of-a-South-Texas-barbacoa-12605741.php

This is the last place in Texas (and probably in the US) that does old-school, noggin-in-the-dirt barbacoa.

Interestingly, they just rinse and wrap, without any seasoning at all. I prefer our approach, which involved a nice rub of spices to cook in (plus the old school banana leaves, etc).

I'm with you. The spice rub was top notch.

I would like to try a roast then wrap approach. I think it would still win.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · February 2018

do it in the dishwasher. Otherwise no reason not to do it in the oven. When you wrap it up to start, you dont get any smoke.

caliking · February 2018

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

do it in the dishwasher. Otherwise no reason not to do it in the oven. When you wrap it up to start, you dont get any smoke.

+1. The pig noggin we did in the dishwasher a while back was gold.

caliking · February 2018

caliking said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

do it in the dishwasher. Otherwise no reason not to do it in the oven. When you wrap it up to start, you dont get any smoke.

+1. The pig noggin we did in the dishwasher a while back was gold.

By "we" I mean you.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · February 2018

caliking said:

caliking said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

do it in the dishwasher. Otherwise no reason not to do it in the oven. When you wrap it up to start, you dont get any smoke.

+1. The pig noggin we did in the dishwasher a while back was gold.

By "we" I mean you.

That thing was funky.

Idle hands...

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