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Neats' Tongues Cured for Keeping

A preserved beef tongue cured with saltpeter, coarse sea salt, common salt, bran, and smoke.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Neats' Tongues Cured for Keeping

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the tongues neatly and cut off the roots without disturbing the under fat.

  2. Wash and dry the tongues.

Cure

  1. Rub the tongues with saltpeter and sal prunella every day for four days.

  2. Place the tongues in a long earthenware pan and cover with common salt.

  3. Turn the tongues every day for three weeks.

Smoke

  1. Wipe the tongues with a soft cloth, dip them in bran, and hang them in smoke for two weeks.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Saltpetre
Helps cure the meat and gives it a pink colour and cured flavour.
Sal prunella
Coarse salt that draws moisture out and seasons the tongues during the rub.
Common salt
Packs around the tongues to draw out moisture and preserve the meat during the cure.

The step that matters

Turning the tongues daily during the salt cure. Salt penetrates unevenly if the tongues sit in one position, so the brine and salt must reach every surface. Daily turning keeps the cure even and prevents soft or spoiled patches.

“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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