French country smoked meat & beans.

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moikel

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Jul 26, 2011
3,198
218
Sydney &Greenwell Point Australia
This is a bit light on for pictures as to the process but its straight forward.

I took a beef tongue that I smoked in my regulation way.(brined in with my other stuff for 8 days,then 8 hours at 65c with the AMZPS loaded with hickory).I poached it in a pot with some celery & carrot,bay leaf,for 2 hours. 

In a separate pan I fried my home made bacon(diced big) with onion,red pepper ,garlic,cbp,EVO. Then in went 3 cans of cannelli beans,some chicken stock & some poaching liquid from the tongue. Let that simmer.

When the tongue skin would lift off I pulled it ,peeled it ,cut it into bits.It went into bean mix with some leftover cooked Toulouse sausage.Gave it more poaching liquid & a stir.

Turned it off going to leave it to tomorrow to sit. I figure the flavours will incorporate overnight.


The tongue cut I didn't get the nerves out of it to hot to late
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Tongue went in here,it has a smoked pork bone in there as well .

The only question going forward is to I put it in a dish sprinkle it with breadcrumbs,butter finish it in the oven
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Maybe even a little cheese on top. Its very tasty & very smokey thanks to the poaching liquid.

If I  get time I will get some bitter greens to go with it tomorrow.
 
Nice Job, Mate! I have eaten Tongue but not played with it. With the additional cooking in the Beans and Liquid, did the Nerves just dissolve?...JJ
 
Nice Job, Mate! I have eaten Tongue but not played with it. With the additional cooking in the Beans and Liquid, did the Nerves just dissolve?...JJ
I didn't even know there was nerves to start with until Clarissa showed us
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.

I think they just dissolved after that long poach. 

I wanted to do tongue as much as I wanted to do bacon because I couldn't buy it anymore. 

I smoked this one skin on after brining then poached & peeled.Clarissa poaches,peels then smokes.(or close).

This dish is shaping up really well,re incorporating the poaching liquid was a winner. Normally I would start from scratch with dry beans but didn't have any when I  opened pantry.I put a smoked bone in the bean mix as it cooked.

Hell of a lot of versions around the world of this.Cant be that far removed from Cajun red beans& rice can it?

Thinking about spreading it out in a terracotta dish then baking it with the breadcrumbs & cheese to give it a bit of a crust.Its not the full cassoulet experience but sort of a 2nd cousin
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Hey Mick,

Looks great!  I love those rustic bean and sausage dishes, especially with some chopped kale thrown in as well.  I like that nice heavy layer of smoke and bark you got along the base of the tongue.

I haven't found the tongue nerves to be as noticeable when I cure and smoke the tongue. If the tongue is just pickled and boiled, the nerves creep me out and I have to remove them.  But if the tongue is cured, a lot of the nerve tissue appears to turn pink just like the muscle meat, so I've been leaving the nerves in too.

For making tongue pastrami I think it works better to cure-poach-peel-smoke because you can put a nice coating of black pepper and coriander on the tongue before smoking.  But for using in a dish like you did or making tacos, I don't imagine it matters too much which way you go. One advantage of your method is that you can apply smoke for a lot longer without risking drying out the tongue. When I've cold smoked the peeled tongues, I've only cold smoked for a few hours.

I've really been enjoying all of your posting from the last couple of weeks. Thanks for sharing all of your great recipes and projects!

Have a great day!

Clarissa
 
Mick, morning..... I have got to cure a tongue... they look soooo good......   Better go see my neighbor and find out when he's slaughtering more cows.... 

Dave
 
Mick, morning..... I have got to cure a tongue... they look soooo good......   Better go see my neighbor and find out when he's slaughtering more cows.... 

Dave
And next time, don't let a little freezer burn scare you off! 
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Cured and smoked, or even just pickled tongue, is way better than just plain cooked tongue!
 
Cured and smoked, or even just pickled tongue, is way better than just plain cooked tongue!
I'm still kicking myself over that faux pas...     
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They went really dark in the smoker.I had a shelf of pork bones for soup & 2 tongues. Pretty forgiving meat it's just that peeling bit that is a challenge.
I love the tongue pastrami idea just love it but I would be eating it on my own.
The way I went this time I got full value out of the poaching liquid beans soaked it up well. Precookedbeans means a gentle reheat so the oven works.
Thanks for the kind words Clarissa . I am going to come back to that Chinese hot pot dish & tinker with ita bit. All beef bits ,tongue,tendon,tripe ,tail.
 
They went really dark in the smoker.I had a shelf of pork bones for soup & 2 tongues. Pretty forgiving meat it's just that peeling bit that is a challenge.
I love the tongue pastrami idea just love it but I would be eating it on my own.
The way I went this time I got full value out of the poaching liquid beans soaked it up well. Precookedbeans means a gentle reheat so the oven works.
Thanks for the kind words Clarissa . I am going to come back to that Chinese hot pot dish & tinker with ita bit. All beef bits ,tongue,tendon,tripe ,tail.
 
Mick, morning..... I have got to cure a tongue... they look soooo good......   Better go see my neighbor and find out when he's slaughtering more cows.... 

Dave
I just used my regular brine that I  adapted from pops ,but I inject it as well as soak it. Smoked then poached it comes out the colour of corn beef. Looks good on the plate with white beans. They are tough & need a long poach to tenderize. I like it with sort of a salsa verde sometimes as well. The lemon zest cuts the richness a bit.
 
OK thats it into shallow ish terracotta dish

Then I put breadcrumbs & some unidentified cheese on it.
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.Put it in the oven.


Came out looking pretty good.


I went back for seconds it was just great.
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 Except for the sausage it was all stuff I had smoked myself.Tongue was king really soft not greasy at all, great depth of flavour from poaching liquid. I might ditch the breadcrumbs they didn't add much. I dont eat hardly any bread these days but I would have done a deal with Satan for a baguette  with french butter.
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OK thats it into shallow ish terracotta dish

Then I put breadcrumbs & some unidentified cheese on it.
biggrin.gif
.Put it in the oven.


Came out looking pretty good.


I went back for seconds it was just great.
yahoo.gif
 Except for the sausage it was all stuff I had smoked myself.Tongue was king really soft not greasy at all, great depth of flavour from poaching liquid. I might ditch the breadcrumbs they didn't add much. I dont eat hardly any bread these days but I would have done a deal with Satan for a baguette  with french butter.
devil.gif
Looks absolutely delicious!  Dang but that tongue looks great. I'm going to have to order some more fun cuts from my local farmer, I'm down to just boring cuts like steaks and roasts in my freezer.
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I hear ya about the killing for bread and butter.  We try and eat mostly paleo too.  Occasional treats slipped in like polenta or rice.  I made some coconut rice yesterday to go with a halibut curry......it almost brought tears to my eyes!
 
Hard to have a curry without rice. I ate a lot of halibut in Vancouver,great fish.Perfect for curry. Butchers daughter has converted me to paleo,I am pretty observant don't miss the pasta much but that well made artisan bread is another thing all together.
 
I am at work eating peanut butter and jelly. You are killing me.Though, come to think of it, smoked pb&j . . . .
 
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