Curing Pigs’ Feet and Tongues
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pickle for feet
Prepare an 80°F (27°C) pickle for the pigs' feet.
Add 5 ounces of saltpetre and 1144 pounds of brown sugar per 100 pounds of meat.
Cure for ten days before shipping without changing the pickle.
Cure the tongues
For tongues, use a 90°F (32°C) pickle in tierces of 330 pounds.
Add 18 ounces of saltpetre and 18 ounces of granulated sugar.
Roll the tierces at intervals for fifteen days.
Cure for twenty to twenty-five days, changing the pickle if shipping.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Pigs' feet
- The main meat being cured; the pickle penetrates and preserves it.
- Saltpetre
- Supplies nitrate that helps give cured meat its pink colour and preserving character.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and flavour to the pickle and balances the salt.
- Pigs' tongues
- The main meat for the second cure, penetrated by the pickle over the longer period.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness to the tongue pickle and softens the salty edge of the cure.
The step that matters
Keep the pickle at the stated temperature. Cure works through salt and nitrate diffusing into the meat, and temperature controls how fast that happens and how well the pickle stays safe. Too warm invites spoilage, too cool slows the cure unevenly, so the pickle must be held steadily at the recorded temperature throughout.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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