Oh yuck!  Not really, it only looks yucky.  What am I talking about?  Tongue - beef tongue to be specific.  It is a muscle meat and a very lean one at that.  I had fixed it before, but I have trouble remembering yesterday, let alone 30+ years ago.

Prepare the Tongue:
Start by rinsing it off and placing it in a pot large enough to hold the tongue and the following ingredients:
2 quartered onions
a bay leaf (or 2 if they are small)
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon peppercorns
several stalks of celery (I usually use the center ones with the leaves)
2-3 carrots.
Boil with a lid on, the tongue covered with water, for about 3 hours.  If necessary, add water to keep it covered.
Remove tongue from the pot and as soon as it has cooled enough to handle it, begin to peel the skin away.  You may need a knife to get you started and to remove some of the very thin delicate parts.  It's much easier to do while still warm, so don't let it totally cool.
There are extra bits (blood vessels, fatty tissue) attached to the lower sides of the tongue that can easily be removed.  They don't look or feel like meat - think squishy - so you'll know what to cut away.  I feed it to the chickens.  Now you have a beautiful (not to the eye) piece of muscle.

The tongue and peeled parts.

Depending on how you intend to use it you may want to slice it thicker or thinner.

The tongue after boiling.

Some of the tongue sliced up.

Tongue in Brown Gravy
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves garlic
4 Tbs flour
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper (heaping)
Sliced mushrooms (I used about 1/2 cup dehydrated), optional
1 pint home-canned beef broth
A few dashes of soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce


Preparation

Tongue in brown gravy over brown
rice with red cabbage and steamed
snap peas from the garden.

Dice the onion and sauté it in oil and butter until translucent over medium/medium high heat.  Sprinkle the flour over the onions, stirring it into the oil and cooking it until it begins to brown.  This is important for taste and appearance. Mince the garlic clove and add it when the roux (mixture of flour and oil/butter is almost done browning.  Gradually add the beef broth, stirring rapidly to prevent lumps.
(It didn't thicken quite as much as I planned and at this point I also realized mushrooms would have been a nice addition.  There were none in the refrigerator.  They weren't necessary, but certainly a nice addition.  then I remembered the dehydrated ones in the pantry.  I had bought about 12 packages when they were on sale for 39 cents each and dehydrated them.  Hmmm....the gravy isn't really thick and the mushrooms need to hydrate....PERFECT!  I added the mushrooms and they absorbed any excess moisture.  That took a little time.)
Add salt, pepper, a dash of soy sauce and stir to incorporate.  Add the meat and cook only until heated through.

Comments on Ingredients:
Butter or olive oil:  A roux is traditionally made from equal parts butter and flour, but I lean towards a little more flour than fat.  I like to use some butter for flavor and to aid the browning process.  The olive oil is strictly to improve the h ealth factor.  A brown roux is cooked until it turns a nutty brown color.  This improves the appearance of the sauce and eliminates the taste of flour.
Garlic:  I typically don't add garlic until close to the end of any frying or sautéing process to prevent it from becoming bitter.
Mushrooms:  If you use fresh mushrooms, add them towards the end.  I should have had my mushrooms already re-hydrated, but because they were an afterthought and the gravy wasn't very thick I could pull off the last-minute change.
Beef broth:  I used home-canned because that's what was in the pantry.  Whether homemade or store bought, it's always good to have some on hand.  I found that frozen broths tend to get lost in the freezer (and they take up precious space) so I started canning them instead.
Soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce:  Which one do you like?  Which one do you have?  That settles it.

Serving Suggestions:
I served it over brown rice with cooked red cabbage and steamed snap peas from the garden as a side.  Alternately, make a little more gravy, boil some noodles and add the cooked noodles to the gravy and meat.

I dare anyone to tell the difference between this and roast beef.  I only used half the tongue.  The other half was used to make fajitas.  I'll share about that soon.