Well, I grew up on corned (pickled) tongue; we had it at home and we ordered tonge sandwiches in Jewish Delis. I love it, and you sure can't buy it in West Virginia.

I've been curing tongue and brisket (to make corned beef) with this recipe from The Complete Book of Home Preserving by Anne Seranne for over 40 years. It's really easy. The hard part these days is getting a tongue!!

Small quantity corned beef or tongue

The general process is just like making fermented pickles. Use a crock, a large glass bowl or a stainless steel pot. Keep it in a cool place, not the fridge.

To 1 c. salt dissolved in 2 qts. water add 2 Tbl. brown sugar, 1 Tb. mixed pickling spices.

Pour brine over 5-6 lb brisket or several tongues. Weight down meat for about 3 weeks, skimming it towards the end if necessary.

To cook, bring meat to boil, simmer about 1 hour, drain and cover with fresh cold water, add 4 bsy leaves and 1 onion and simmer until tender.

I'll bet you can buy a tongue already smoked or pickled.
I'll bet he wants to know what to do with it after he has it.
Tongue was part of the "deli meat" assortment when I was a kid.....we went to the deli and said I want a quarter pound of this and a quarter pound of that! LOL!

If not, I'll bet that pink salt would work.

Or just boil a tongue, peel it ( eww!!) and immerse in a half vinegar half water with lots of sugar and lots of spices, in the refrig for several days.

Does he really want to start form a whole raw tongue???

My dad use to eat pickled tongue from the jar already made. No recipe, he would just slice it put it on a cracker with either a slice of pickled egg(also from a jar) or spread with stone ground mustard. I did try it once as a kid. Blechhh! Not a fan. NancyLouise

I just pulled mine out of the brine and cooked it last weekend. I used this recipe for corned beef (you can "corn" anything).
Easy, easy. The hardest part is peeling after cooking.

After the brining process is complete. Put the tongue in a pot and cover with water (toss the brine). Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about 45 minutes.
Remove from water, cool and peel.
Slice thinly and serve cold.
Yum!!!

You'll need to adjust the amount of brine since the recipe is for a 7-9 lb. brisket. I put the meat and the cooled brine in a ziploc and set that in a big bowl.
Just swish it around when open the fridge to make sure all parts are covered with brine.

Deanna

LOL!... good stuff!

Here is how I make mine.

Boil the tounge in a pot of water with half a jar of pickling spices.

When it is cooked (depends on how thick the tounge is) drain the water and let it cool.

On a cutting board peel the skin off the tounge. The thin rough coating of gristle under the skin is okay to leave on or it can be peeled also for those that don't like any crunch.

Once peeled of the white skin slice it into bite sized chunks. I usually wind up with 1/4" thick squares about the size of a saltine cracker!... some get thicker as I get tired of slicing.

Put the cooked tounge meat into a glass jar (pickle jar) and cover with 5% acid white vinegar. Add the remaining half of the pickle spices! Keep in the fridge! It must be kept cold.

It can be eaten the day you make it. It will have a decent pickle flavor in about a week. Full strength comes in about a month. It will keep for many weeks without losing quality... I've never seen it go "bad" so long as it remains under the vinegar.

If it tastes over sour it can be rinsed with cold water just before you eat it. The 5% vinegar has a bite... I like it but a bit much for some.

I've also pickled chicken gizzards the same way... you have to pick out the gizzard stones rather then peel skin. Birds swallow rocks! These are considered delicious by slightly over half the people at the local Nascar parties... big step is to try one. If you like pickled bologna then tounge or gizzards are top shelf.

Quick and dirty way is to buy pickled bologna... it probably has some ground up tounges in it.. along with... well you don't wanna know.

: )
lyra

like laceyvail and Deanna, "pickled tongue" to me was always brined, like corned beef, not pickled as in vinegar, so first you should find out what your Dad really wants. Deanna is right, you can "corn" anything, but for some reason only beef seems to be commonly "corned" here.

I use the corned beef recipe in Charcuterie, they are all very similar, but if he really wants it pickled with a vinegar brine, I'd probably just use the recipe for pickled bologna.

Annie

Jessy, check with some of the old butcher shops or kosher ones, they may have it in stock for you. In the LA area you should be able to find it, like I can.

Heck, after Mom passed and I cleaned out the freezer, I foudn a small one. No idea what I should do with it, so I pitched it. I love a braised tongue, but do not like corned anything, so.....

LOL, Peppi, the girls always got a little weird when they'd open the freezer and find a tongue or a heart. I have a beef heart in there right now, in fact.

We always just had it boiled, Grandma would leave it whole and intact on a plate in the refrigerator, Dad would cut off slices, "peel" them and make sandwiches. It was a little surprising, sometimes, when people opened the refrigerator and saw that sitting there...

Annie

OK I talked to him and he confirmed that he wants to know how to make it, not buy a finished product. He said no rush, he has to locate a source first and he is up to his eyeballs in other business stuff - selling an apartment complex. I'll bring up the brine vs pickle issues with him as well, all good points.

Annie ha ha about people opening the fridge and seeing a tongue on a plate. Go rent Borat.

Jessica, Ashley insisted that I watch Borat. I made it through about 10 minutes, it was one of the dumbest things I've ever subjected myself to, I can't imagine having to watch it ALL.

Annie

I am sucky with meats but the caption got my attention and I had to look. I don't think I could handle the "tongue in the fridge". Although, my Russian neighbour brought me some of her favorite treats and tongue was one of them. She told me it is great with vodka. I told her I'm a Canadian girl - orange juice is good with vodka. BTW, I couldn't read all of lindac's post, ugh.

I've never had pickled tongue...but I remember the boiled tongue on a plate in the fridge from childhood. It was a cheap protein, so my mother bought one once in a while. I liked it well enough, though I did better with the texture if I reheated slices in a fry pan so they had a bit of "crust" on them. Otherwise, it seemed so...well...squishy!

In my adult years, I've mostly had tongue Mexican style, in a taco. It isn't so inexpensive anymore, and the tongues in the market are so BIG that I never could talk myself into buying a whole one to try making it myself. I wonder if they sell smaller tongues...maybe veal?