Smoked Beef Tongue Q-View

Glad someone resurrected this thread or I would never have found it. Bump...anyone have any recipes? My interest is piqued!

Keeping this thread alive...

My Uncle in law who is 85 years old requested I cook him some cow tongue.  I have no idea why...he is an interesting man and doesn't get out much these days.  I am not one to back down from a challenge so I went to my local Restaurant Depot and they had 3 to pick from that weren't frozen.  

This one is 3.80 lbs and was $5.93/lb!  I understand that cows usually only have one tongue but geez that is ridiculous.  Got it home last night, washed it thoroughly with cold water and put it back in the fridge.  My 5 yo daughter was surprisingly ok about helping to prepare the tongue...probably because her mom wasn't around last night to react to the situation.  

We prepared a brine solution with low sodium beef broth, 2% kosher salt by weight and dark brown sugar at half the weight of the salt.  Brought that to a boil and then chilled it in an ice bath.  Brought 1.5 gallons of water to a boil in a 2 gallon pot and dunked the tongue in for 30 seconds to kill any surface bacteria.  Then injected ~4 oz of the brine into the tongue, sprinkled a little salt on the exposed meaty portion, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it back into the fridge.

I know I'm taking a lot of extra precaution here but I don't want to get my Uncle sick!  He's very opinionated and I want a good one.  Tomorrow, I plan to simmer the tongue on the stove in some beef broth and maybe some onions and things until the skin will peel off.  Then it'll get rubbed with hot sauce and coarse black pepper and onto the cooker until 160ºF max.

I am open to any suggestions for the rest of the plan.

Fresh out of the package before cleaning




After injecting


Nate

Sounds like it should be good. I had not thought of injecting a beef tongue. Seems like it would make the brineing  easier.

they are delicious however you prepare them. The standard in my family is boil cool and peel then slice and bake in a sauce made of oinion and carrot. good cold or hot.     

I now have four beef tongues in the freezer just crying to be smoked. Lol I think I will try injecting them first. Thanks for the idea [emoji]128161[/emoji]

So I wound up simmering it covered in unsalted beef broth with onion and garlic for 1.5 hours.  The skin was still difficult to get off.  It was 145ºF IT and I didn't want it to get any higher before putting it on the cooker.  Slathered it in hot sauce and coarse black pepper and put it in the OK Joe @ 250ºF until it reached 160ºF IT.  We sliced it pretty thin and it was still tough/rubbery.  Didn't really like it.

i just wish someone else in my family liked tongue other than me.  Love the stuff.  Would love the chance to give a go at smoking it.  

Yum.. I do love beef tongue. Boiled baked. fried smoked. It s all good. Reminds me of people who hate liver. And may have never had it well prepares. and then rave about how good pate is. But never read the recipe.