Ox Tongue, Cured
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tongue
Cut away the root of the tongue and set it aside for stock.
Leave a little fat on the tongue and trim it neatly.
Rub the tongue well with coarse sea salt and let it sit overnight.
Drain and dry the tongue.
Cure
Mix together pounded saltpetre, moist sugar, and coarse sea salt.
Rub the mixture thoroughly over every part of the tongue.
Turn the tongue and rub it again with the mixture every day for three weeks.
After three weeks, the tongue will be ready for cooking, drying, or smoking.
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
- Ox tongue
- The meat being cured; its texture is set by the salt and cure over time.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and carries the cure into it.
- Moist sugar
- Balances the salt and softens the harshness of the cure.
- Pounded saltpetre
- Preserves the meat and gives it its characteristic pink colour.
The step that matters
Daily rubbing for three weeks. The cure only penetrates by repeated application and turning. Missing days or leaving areas untreated can leave parts of the tongue under-cured and prone to spoiling.
“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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