Homemade Sausage Making

Why not just cut the tongue into several pieces before you start the cure. It will be quicker and no more troublesome.

Hi Rudy,
I will be following your posts and procedures very closely as I am also keen to make it.
I have never used tongue at all but buy sliced tongue sausage often when available.
Keep us all informed.
Regards,
Jan.

ssorllih wrote:Why not just cut the tongue into several pieces before you start the cure. It will be quicker and no more troublesome.

Ross, never thought of doing that. Will the tough skin peel off as easily as on a whole cooked tongue? I plan to cut the tongue into 3/4" cubes anyway before stuffing so slicing into 1 or 2 inch pieces before curing is no problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

You can add a bit of cure 1 into the broth when cooking the tongue. Make a slit in the underside. The tongue takes a long time to cook and the nitrite will permeate it. Leave the skin on and remove it after cooking. It peels off without any waste. Trying to remove the skin off a fresh tongue without waste is next to impossible.

redzed wrote:You can add a bit of cure 1 into the broth when cooking the tongue. Make a slit in the underside. The tongue takes a long time to cook and the nitrite will permeate it. Leave the skin on and remove it after cooking. It peels off without any waste. Trying to remove the skin off a fresh tongue without waste is next to impossible.

Redzed, Yes I have done exactly what you described several times in the past but I am always left with some of the tongue grayish-brown in color which turns some folks off. I actually just made some tongue and ham sulze where the tongue was cooked in 194° F water with added cure #1 for 3 hours but after peeling the skin off, some of the tongue meat was that grayish brown color. I'll post some pics soon.

I'm trying to duplicate what Saag's sells as "Bavarian Headcheese", which I really love but costs close to $10 a pound in my neck of the woods.

if you slit the skin on the underside and then cross cut the tongue and cook it in water with the nitrite in it then it should skin easily and color up as you want.

Here's what my beef tongues looked like after cooking at 194° F for 3 hours with added cure #1:



And, here's what it looked like after it was cubed:



Notice the grayish parts which I don't like. That's why I posted my original question. Thanks to all that have replied thus far,

They actually look pretty good to me! But it's also interesting to note that it is the more dense side, the side on the top of the tongue with the skin cover that has picked up more of the pink colour. Am I right in that observation?

I read some technical paper somewhere, and don't remember where, that brining tongues takes somewhere between 8 and 18 days. You also need to remove the tongues after the first 3 days, rinse and place in fresh brine. This is to remove the mucous and saliva from them.

redzed wrote:They actually look pretty good to me! But it's also interesting to note that it is the more dense side, the side on the top of the tongue with the skin cover that has picked up more of the pink color. Am I right in that observation?

RedZed, you are absolutely right and that's why I am flabbergasted. Why would the toughest part take a pink color and not the easiest?

Anyway, I have taken Ross's advice and sliced 6 lbs of beef tongue about 1 to 2 inches thick and then placed into CW's 25° SAL brine. Will keep it at 38° F for 3 or 4 days and then make some sulze. Let you all know the results. Thanks guys.

Hello Butterbean

I'm trying to duplicate your recipe and have some questions.
How much weight is the total meat used?
When and how much cure #1 did you use? and when did you add it?

When I made your Braunschweiger liver pate, I just simmered the tongue, kidneys, skin/meat and heart for 4-5 hours - with no cure #1 - should I treat the meat for this recipe the same?

"place mixture in mould and cover with lukewarm liquid..." Just pour the lukewarm water
over the mixture? Won't that dilute the total mixture? Can't I stuff the whole mess into a large casing and peel off the casing when it all solidifies ?

I also boiled and simmered 2 pigs feet till the meat fell off the bones and reduced the liquid to about 1-2 inches - removed the bones and used the whole mess in the Braunschweiger after chopping up the larger pieces. Should I do that again with this recipe?

Thank you,
Doug

ps Your Braunschweiger liver pate was so popular and delicious - I'm making another!! also.