Beef Tongue

Back when I was putting in our 2nd order for 1/4 beef, I bravely asked for the tongue. Why, you ask? I know it's good for us and why let it go to waste? The gal I was ordering it from kinda thought that was different, as do most of my friends that I tell about it. Not a lot of people make use of every bit of the animal, I guess. Don't worry, I'm not going to go to the extreme of using every bit of the cow, but I figure I might as well try some of the less-desirable parts that are good for us.

It took me awhile to make the time to cook the thing, I think I was sorta scared that it wouldn't turn out, taste good or that I'd be grossed out in the process of cooking it. To be honest, I came very close to being grossed out.
r the cow's mouth, it also includes a bigger portion that it's connected to. And, the skin (?) on the tongue is bumpy and kind of weird. Here's a sideways picture of the raw tongue in my crock pot.

I used this recipe from the Food Lovers. It looked pretty good and I liked the idea of shredded tongue over big chunks of tongue. Here it is in the water w/ the onion, garlic and jalapeno.

It cooked all day in the crock pot and then I pulled it out and had to peel off the skin. That kinda of grossed me out, but the meat underneath was tender and shredded really easily. 

After shredding the meat, I warmed it in a pan with the spices. See, looks a lot like regular ol' shredded beef: 

Just in case, though, I browned up some ground beef as backup for my family.

I did give each kid and Erik a small piece of tongue to taste w/ their ground beef tacos. Kera is the only one who knew what it was before she tried it and it didn't stop her. After they all tasted it, I told them what it was and despite my fears, no one freaked out. Erik didn't like it cuz he doesn't like shredded meat, and the girls didn't like the seasoning on it. Otherwise, no complaints from them.

What did I think? I didn't like the amount of spice on it and actually didn't finish my tacos. I think the next time I try it I'll do a different recipe that doesn't cover the actual taste of tongue so much w/ spices. So, officially, I'm undecided on beef tongue. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

I got another tongue w/ our recent 1/2 cow order, so I have another one to try. That, and a beef heart, which is even HUGER than the tongue. That one scares me even more to be honest! We'll see how long it takes me to tackle that one.

Have you ever eating beef tongue? How was it? OR another "weird" cut of meat?