To Cure Tongues
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Mix the coarse sea salt, sugar, and saltpetre together.
Rub the mixture onto the tongue thoroughly for ten consecutive days.
Cook
Soak the tongue well before boiling it.
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
- Tongue
- The meat itself; the cure seasons it and firms its texture as salt draws out moisture.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, firming the texture during curing.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cured flavour.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing and gives the cure its characteristic flavour.
The step that matters
Rub the cure on thoroughly every day for ten consecutive days. Salt and saltpetre only penetrate as far as they are applied and kept in contact with the meat. Skipping days or rubbing unevenly leaves parts under-cured, so the cure can spoil or cure unevenly.
“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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