Cured, smoked beef tongue

[seemore]

Here is the tongue that Scott and I cured for four weeks and then cold- smoked for six hours.  It looked, smelled, and tasted like corned beef!

[Smoking Duck]

Now that's a tongue!  Did you have it with cabbage?

Well done and I'm glad you figured out how to post pics!  Now, your task is to take pics of the entire process....I'd love to see how you did this from start to finish.

SD

[FLBentRider]

That looks..... Interesting... Good, but interesting. I'm not sure I'd  get the family to eat it unless I put it in Chili...

[Habanero Smoker]

That looks a lot better then how my mother used to cook beef tongue. Back in the day; it was one of the cheapest cuts you could buy. She would cook it in a raisin sauce. I never could acquire a taste for it.

[love the smoke]

Cold tongue sandwiches the next day with a good helping of salt and pepper and just a touch of CYM  oh is that ever good


LTS

[seemore]

We put some yellow mustard on it, and it was not bad.  I prefer the dark mustards that have some kick to them, though.  I have to say that I am not a big fan of this meat, and having to skin the dang thing just about did it for me.  However, it is a very tender meat.  Scott gets a particular dish at a local Mexican restaurant, and you would never know that it is cow tongue.  We followed a cure that is listed in a book called "Mastering the Craft of Smoking Food" by Warren Anderson.   We have followed several of his curing/smoking methods and we have not found one yet that we do not like.  In particular, we cured/smoked some catfish and it was out of this world.  Now that we know how to post pictures - which was painful enough for our computer-illiterate brains - we will send more.  Have a great day!  It is snowing right now in Bettendorf, Iowa, but that's ok - makes me want to hang the lights on our Christmas tree. 

[KyNola]

Seemore,
Please tell me more about the cured/smoked catfish.  I would be really interested to know how you did it.

KyNola

[Smoking Duck]

Sounds great Seemore!  I'd sure like to hear about some more of the smokes/cures you guys have done.  I've never read the book by Mr. Anderson and would like to see some of his recipes.  Please feel free to share any and all.

SD

[seemore]

KyNola and SD, here is the recipe for the smoked catfish:

Cure mix for 2 1/4 pounds of catfish filets
2 t salt
1 T sugar
1/2 t white pepper
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t cayenne
1/4 t rosemary powder
1/4 t basil powder

Day 1
Sprinkle the cure on both sides of the filets, and rub the flesh to distribute the cure evenly.  Stack the fish in a curing container, and refrigerate it for 24 hours.  Overhaul the filets several times during this period.

Day 2, evening
Rinse the cure off the filets quickly in cool water.  Lay them in a food container with paper towels and newspaper between each layer.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Day 3, morning
Place the filets on paper towels and dry them in front of a fan for one hour.  We did not do this - we let them dry in the open air of our kitchen with the overhead fan running.
Prepare the smoker for additional drying at 100 degrees F.
Dry at 100 degrees in the smoke chamber (with no smoke) until the glossy, smooth pellicle is formed.  Turn the filets over every 30 minutes so that both sides will dry.  The drying time will require at least one hour.
Cold smoke the filets for about three hours.
Transfer each filet to a small sheet of parchment paper that has been cut to the approximate size of the filet and perforated with many holes.  Place the filets on the smoker racks with the parchment paper underneath. 
Next, over a one hour period, temper the frlesh by stepping up the temperature a little at a time until it reaches 175 degrees F.  Continue to smoke at 175 degrees F until the catfish is fully cooked;  this may require several hours.  The fish is fully cooked when the internal temperature is 140 degrees F or when the flesh is opaque and flakes easily.
The author says that this tastes like salmon.  Neither June nor I thought it tasted like salmon, but had it's own unique good flavor.
Enjoy!  Seemore.

[KyNola]

Thanks much.  That sounds really good.  Love me some good catfish!

Thanks again and welcome to the forum.

KyNola

[Oldman]

Thank you for sharing...I'm sure it is a great recipe.

Now to all here... the "cure" listed in this recipe is NOT a cure, so becareful. A cure would have something like: InstaCure #1; or DQ Powder; or Prague Powder #1; etc. in it.

I would label this mixer as a dry mix / rub rather than a cure. Make sure your fish is really fresh.

Olds

[seemore]

I'm glad you clarified that, Olds.  Yes, it does not have any of those curing chemicals, so technically it is not really "cured" catfish.  We have used those curing chemicals, and I really don't like working with them.  They scare me.

[FLBentRider]

The Curing mixes scare me less than all the stuff in our food we can't pronounce...

[NePaSmoKer]

Now that's a tongue!  Did you have it with cabbage?

Well done and I'm glad you figured out how to post pics!  Now, your task is to take pics of the entire process....I'd love to see how you did this from start to finish.

SD

Keep your nose to the wind and your eyes to the skyline ~~ Jeremiah Johnson

HAHAHA Love that movie.......twernt mormos EH SD

nepas

[La Quinta]

My Mom used to plop an entire (somehow) cooked tongue on a big platter on the dinning room table...we would ask, as kids, "what is that?" The answer was always "Eat it first and then I'll tell you." I love tongue...it was great...even when my brother and I didn't know what it was...it was always good.  Ordered snails at the Worlds Fair in Toronto when I was a wee one...maybe 6...

Food is really a thing to be adventurous with...if you don't like it...ok...just don't be afraid to try anything...you may be surprised... ;D