Boiled Tongue or Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the meat and place it in a kettle.
Cover the meat with cold water and bring it slowly to a boil.
Boil for 5 minutes, then remove any scum.
Simmer and finish
Reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 3 to 4 hours.
Cool the meat slightly in the cooking water, then remove it and peel off the skin.
If using a Fireless Cooker, you may need to reheat the meat before returning it to the Cooker.
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
- Meat (tongue or ham)
- Is the main food being cooked; slow simmering turns its tough connective tissue tender.
The step that matters
Simmer slowly until tender. Keeping the water at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets collagen break down into gelatin slowly, so the meat becomes tender without tightening and toughening the fibres.
“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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