BEEF TONGUES.
These may be cured by any of the receipts which we have already given for pickling beef, or for those which will be found further on for hams and bacon. Some persons prefer them cured with salt and saltpetre only, and dried naturally in a cool and airy room. For such of our readers as like them highly and richly flavoured we give our own method of having them prepared, which is this:—“Rub over the tongue a handful of fine salt, and let it drain until the following day; then, should it weigh from seven to eight pounds, mix thoroughly an ounce of saltpetre, two ounces of the coarsest sugar, and half an ounce of black pepper; when the tongue has been well rubbed with these, add three ounces of bruised juniper-berries; and when it has laid two days, eight ounces of bay salt, dried and pounded; at the end of three days more, pour on it half a pound of treacle, and let it remain in the pickle a fortnight after this; then hang it to drain, fold it in brown paper, and send it to be smoked over a wood fire for two or three weeks. Should the peculiar flavour 203of the juniper-berries prevail too much, or be disapproved, they may be in part, or altogether, omitted; and six ounces of sugar may be rubbed into the tongue in the first instance when it is liked better than treacle.”
Tongue, 7 to 8 lbs.; saltpetre, 1 oz.; black pepper, 1/2 oz.; sugar, 2 oz.; juniper-berries, 3 oz.: 2 days. Bay salt, 8 oz.: 3 days. Treacle, 1/2 lb.: 14 days.
Obs.—Before the tongue is salted, the root end, which has an unsightly appearance, should be trimmed away: it is indeed usual to take it off entirely, but some families prefer part of it left on for the sake of the fat.