Hanoverian specialties

Hanover-Style Tongue Ragout

This savory meat dish proves that traditional, hearty Hanoverian cuisine can also be quite refined. Hannoversche tongue ragout is a sophisticated combination of beef tongue, meatballs, mushrooms, and small sausages, all braised in a spicy broth. A distinctive feature is the preparation of the sauce, for which flour is slowly browned in a pan in the oven while stirring constantly. The roux is then diluted with the meat broth and mixed with the pre-cooked ingredients.

Plate with pieces of meat, meatballs and sauce — Hanoverian Beef Stew

The secret is in the sauce

The term “ragout” has its origins in French cuisine and refers to delicacies that “tantalize the palate” or “whet the appetite.” In the traditional Hanoverian tongue ragout, the braised pieces of meat are typically served with a creamy flour-based sauce, which some discerning palates find gives the delicate ragout a slightly heavy note. For gourmets, Hannover’s top chef Joachim Stern has slightly modified the classic dish: instead of beef tongue, he uses the more tender veal tongue for his ragout, and he mixes a dash of cream into the spicy brown flour-based sauce, making it velvety and less heavy.

For anyone who’d like to try this down-to-earth, hearty dish and recreate it at home, here’s the original recipe from Hannover-based chef Hans-Jürgen Thünken:

Hannoversche Zungenragout à la Hans-Jürgen Thünken

Ingredients:
A beef tongue
500 grams Thuringian mince
500 grams of Saucischen (small sausages that must be ordered from Behnsen the butcher on Limmerstraße)
100 grams pearl onions
100 gram flour
Lard an onion with bay leaf and cloves
White pepper and salt
10 grams margarine
plus 500 grams of mushrooms from the market at Pfarrlandplatz
Preparation:
Cook the beef tongue in boiling salted water with the larded onion for approx. two and a half to three hours until soft, rinse in cold water, peel off the firm white skin, remove the glands and fat and cut into slices. Shape the dumplings and cook in the tongue stock, also set aside. Place the pearl onions in hot water for approx. one minute, then peel off. Prepare the mushrooms.
Now comes the special part: pour 100 grams of flour into a duck pan and brown in a dry oven, stirring constantly. Now pour in about two liters of tongue stock, stir the flour and stock with a whisk until smooth and cook for about 20 minutes. Dilute with tongue stock if necessary. Now add the fried sauce fish, mushrooms, pearl onions, pork dumplings and sliced tongue to the sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Variation: add a bottle of red wine to the sauce, reduce the tongue stock.
Source: “Do You Have Another Question?” – Little Chef – Big Mouth, Jan Brinkmann, Cadmos Publishing