Beef tongue boiled until tender is sliced, lightly browned in garlic-infused butter, quickly simmered in Béchamel sauce then served with garlic slices and button mushrooms.

Beef tongue (lengua) and mushrooms in Bechamel sauce

Cook’s notes

This is the beef tongue dish that I grew up with. Back then, we simply called it lengua in white sauce. Most probably a retro dish invented by baby boomers who used a lot of canned food in their cooking, the old way of making the sauce is by diluting condensed cream of mushroom soup. Canned button mushrooms was the default.

That was then. There is no canned mushroom soup and no canned button mushrooms in this recipe.

Beef tongue

The key to cooking a good beef tongue dish is to make sure that the meat has no strong smell by the time it lands on your plate. It should also be properly trimmed and melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Granted, accomplishing all that takes time. Beef tongue takes hours to cook. But if you do the work in segments, cooking beef tongue becomes less intimidating.

Cook the tongue a day ahead, let it cool slowly in the cooking liquid, scoop out, chill overnight in the fridge if you have time, then peel so that it’s ready to be cooked with mushrooms and Béchamel sauce.

Fresh mushrooms

You’ll need fresh button mushrooms for this dish. Canned just doesn’t work because there’s no flavor left to be squeezed out and because you just can’t brown mushrooms that have been sitting in brine for a long time.

Butter

You’ll also need real butter to saute garlic and the mushrooms. Not margarine. Not butter substitute. Real butter.

And you’ll need more butter to brown the fully cooked beef tongue slices. This stage gives the tongue better texture due to caramelization. Instead of having a mouth feel of boiled meat, a thin crust forms on the surface which transforms the texture in a serious way.

Béchamel sauce

And then, you’ll need some more butter to make a roux which forms the base of Béchamel sauce. To prevent the sauce from acquiring an overwhelming taste of cream and losing the beefy flavor, a little broth is added. It can be the liquid in which the tongue has been cooked. Or, if you find that still too strong in smell, use plain beef broth.

This recipe begins will a fully cooked tongue. Read a detailed guide on buying, prepping and tenderizing beef tongue first before proceeding with the recipe.

Beef tongue (lengua) and mushrooms in Béchamel sauce

Course: Main Course

Tag: Beef tongue, Organ meat

Servings: 3 people

Prep: 10

Cook: 20

Total: 30

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Ingredients

6 tablespoons salted butter divided
4 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced
150 grams button mushrooms (about 5 oz) thinly sliced
salt
pepper
6 ¾-inch thick slices fully cooked beef tongue
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup beef broth (you may use the liquid in which the beef tongue was cooked)
¼ cup thick cream (whipping cream, please, not "all purpose cream")

Instructions

Melt two tablespoons butter in a frying pan.
Saute the garlic just until starting to brown along the edges.
Dump in the mushroom slices, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms lose their raw appearance.
Scoop out the garlic and mushrooms (leave the butter in the pan) and set aside.
Melt two more tablespoons butter in the pan.
Arrange the beef tongue slices in a single layer in the hot butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Cook until the undersides are lightly browned then flip to brown the opposite sides.
Scoop out the beef tongue and set aside.
Melt the remaining two tablespoons butter in the pan.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir quickly to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes until starting to brown.
Pour the broth in a thin stream, stirring as you pour. Cook until the mixture thickens.
Pour in the cream and stir.
Arrange the browned beef tongue in the simmering sauce with the mushrooms and garlic on top.
Simmer until everything is heated through.
Scoop the beef tongue slices, mushrooms, garlic and Bechamel sauce into bowls and serve.