To Pickle Tongues for Boiling
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cure
Cut off the root of the tongues, leaving a little of the kernel and fat.
Sprinkle salt on the tongues and let them drain overnight.
Mix 1 cup of common salt, 1 cup of coarse sugar, and ½ cup of saltpetre for each tongue.
Rub the mixture into the tongues daily.
After one week, add another heaped cup of salt.
If rubbed daily, the tongues will be ready in two weeks.
If only turned in the pickle, they will keep for four to five weeks.
Dry and store
When drying, write the date on parchment and tie it on.
Smoke the tongues or dry them plain as preferred.
Cook and serve
To cook, boil the tongues until extremely tender, about five hours.
If boiled sooner, keep the tongues hot.
If the tongues are hard, soak them for three to four hours before cooking.
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
- Gives the cured tongues their pink colour and a firm, cured texture.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the tongues during the cure.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the salt and softens the harshness of the cure.
The step that matters
Boiling until extremely tender. Tongue is a tough muscle rich in connective tissue. It needs long, gentle boiling so the collagen breaks down; stopping early leaves it firm and chewy.
“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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