Where’s the bread?
Pickled beef tongue is one of those litmus test foods. Either it completely freaks you out or you think that its one of the best things ever. As for myself, I am deep in the “best thing ever” camp. But I know a lot of people, Jews included who cannot get the image of a cow licking its lips out of their head when then see it. More for me.
I cannot recall the first time I ate tongue. I can remember my mother leaving a small tongue on the stove with pickling spices for hours on the lowest heat. It was a rare treat in Wisconsin as we were far from the delis of the East coast and even a decent salami was a matter of relatives airlifting them from New York.
When it comes to the ultimate deli tongue experience there is no finer place to enjoy it in my humble opinion than Katz’s deli at the corner of Houston and Ludlow in New York. There my sandwich is always tongue and pastrami, on rye (duh!) with spicy brown mustard. When I was younger I would get a full pickle, an order of their enormous steak fries and a Dr. Browns Cream Soda (my father would suggest the Cel-Ray is a more refreshing choice). It was truly a heart attack and heart burn on two plates. Today my appetite is a bit more modest and a just the sandwich leaves me stuffed for the day.
Alas, I live too far away to eat this tasty morsel with any regularity (which is good for my arteries) but I have worked out how to make it at home. All you need is time, about a week and one mail order ingredient. That ingredient is DQ Curing Salt or Pink Salt. It contains nitrite, which will work with salt to kill many pathogens including the ones that cause botulism. In addition the nitrite causes the hemoglobin to set up with a rosy red color (similar to what happens when you have carbon-monoxide poisoning). This creates the color you see in corned beef, brisket, hot-dogs, salami, pepperoni and pretty much every other dry cured sausage you can buy.
It should go without saying that tongue should be enjoyed on rye bread with good brown mustard. The only acceptable alternative is to serve it with fried eggs, hash browns and buttered rye toast.
Recipe after the break
Pickled Beef Tongue
For the brine:
A full beef tongue, 2-3 lbs
1 gallon of water
1 lb kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 oz pink salt (aka DQ curing salt #1)
2 garlic cloves
1 tb pickling spice
Place half the water in the freezer. Take all brine ingredients except meat and place in small stock pot with half the water, bring to a boil and lower to a simmer for 10 min. Turn off heat and allow to cool to room temperature. When the brine is cool, rinse tongue and set aside. Take a container that will hold the brine and tongue fill with brine and cold water from the freezer. Put the tongue in (best to do this in the sink in case of overflow) and seal container. If you cannot force all the air out of the container use a plate to weight the tongue down so it stays submerged. Stash in the back of your fridge for at least a week.
For the braise:
1 tb toasted and cracked pepper corns
2 bay leaves
24 oz of good lager (no light beer please, PBR is a nice choice)
1 dash pepper flakes
1 dash ground ginger
1 clove
1 tsp mustard seed
Rinse tongue and dispose of brine. Place tongue and all braise ingredients in a dutch oven or other heavy closed vessel and put in a 250F oven for 5-6 hours or until the meat falls apart with a little prodding. Once the meat is done allow it to cool and then peel the skin off. If the meat is cooked all the way through the skin will just come up with a gentle tug. Otherwise put in back in the braise and let it go longer. You cannot overcook this, its like a pot-roast.
At Katz’s they serve it cold, but I like it hot like a corned beef.
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- Who knew you could get it at Safeway?
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- The brine just assembled
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- 15 min later the salt and sugar has dissolved
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- Into the brine, see you in a week
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- One week later
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- Tongue and spices ready for the braising liquid
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- Tongue soaking in beer, seems natural
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- After a long slow braise
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- Out of the pot onto the cutting board
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- The skin should just peel off with your fingers
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- Where’s the bread?
Jewish Food in the Hands of Heathens 
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I just bought a fantastic looking trimmed tongue. I haven’t had a pickled tongue sandwich for 50 years. I NEED to do this before I die. I don’t have pickleing spices, I wonder if I can use the brine that is in the jar of Kosher pickles I have?
Also, my mother used to make a tongue as a potroast with potato and carrots. How delicious was that? WOW!!!!!
Steve, using your old Kosher pickle juice will work just fine. Add a bit of salt as the brine will be a tad depleted. But the brine has all of the good bacteria that was proliferated by the pickling process. No need to add anything else.
I would go with real pickling spices. Short of that you can whip up your own. Use the braise seasonings in addition to the others listed in the brine recipe. Pickle juice contains vinegar which, after a week, will result in mushy meat- ugh!
I am living in NO GOOD FOOD HELL. There is no tongue, no corned beef, no pastrami, no good bagels, bialy’s, kishke, knish, matzoh ball soup, chopped liver, anything New York, Jewish, Deli, ANYTHING , within 200 miles of where I live…H..E…L…P…!
OMG where do u live ? Sounds like my home Belgrade Montana
Well, first of all to Gordon, I did as you said and bought regular pickleing spices. It was DELICIOUS. (I don’t need no stinkin Deli’s) Well, maybe for Corned Beef, Rolled Beef, hot Pastromi sandwiches. OMG
To Susan, I am in Powell, OH but brought up in Hull, Massachusetts, 2 blocks from the ocean.
My sympathy to all of you…you should try Northern Maine for 40 years, if you really want to know suffering. But, with all due respect, the French, up in St John Valley have some very nice ethnic foods, Still I would kill, right now, for a real Pastramii on on Jewish rye and a deli pickle.
Tom, from Highbridge, Bronx
Aloha you all! Brought up in Brookline Ma and Hull Ma. Now live in Paradise, Honolulu. People here never heard of these foods. Did find some pickled tomatoes (Bubbies) and thought i died and went to heaven. Miss deli food so much it hurts my brain just thinking about it.
here i venture in what seems to be a futile quest to aquire the elusive, and now aparently,non-existant… lengendary and ever so delectible PICKLED LAMB TONGUE(s) . anybody know of anywhere in MA. that they can be purchased ? or any where on the planet for that matter…seriousely “jonesing” for some…it has been years
No answer on the lamb tongue… but did make a pickled beef tongue and it was delish… Left it curing in fridge for a week. Next time I’ll leave it about 10 days as there were a few spots that weren’t quite pink.
I am just checking on the recipe, is it really one pound of kosher salt in the brine?? I have never made or ate pickled beef tongue, thank you for the recipe. (I do have the tongue, just did not know what to do with it!)
Mary, provided you use the full amount of water it should be fine. You might not need all of it (depending on the side of the tongue), but you need to get the whole thing under the brine.
I just used the recipe above. Did cook it differently though. Put meat in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and discard the water. Repeat three more times. Cover with cold water again, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for about two hours or until tender. Peel off the skin while it is still warm. Cool meat and slice.
Funny, I was just thinking yesterday that it was time to make another one. Now you’ve got me drooling!
Thank you it is in the brine solution, and if I understand correctly I will cook it on Thursday. I will follow your tip on bringing to a boil and discarding the cooking water, that should help with the saltiness. Thank you again, your tips are much appreciated!!
Make sure you leave it in the brine at least 10 days (or more). The meat should be pink throughout after being cooked. Mine still had a couple of spots that were not quite pink. I’m going for 10 days next time.
Wish I could be at your house to help you eat it!
By the way, Mary you don’t have to pickle the tongue. My mother used to make it pot roast style just as it comes from the market.
Thank you very much!! We purchased 1/2 of a steer, and the tongue was part of that half!
Let us know how you decide to cook it.
Hi looking for good tongue recipes and yours certainly looks great. The only question I have is why do you not take the outer skin off before cooking in your seasoned broth? Thanks Pam
It is very difficult to remove the skin without taking a bunch of the meat with it until after the tongue is cooked. Most tongue recipes call for a long cook time with the skin on. Its overall an easier process that results in tender meat. I have seen some recipes that are shorter cook times (still 1.5-3 hours) with the skin and tendons removed first. But again it is a skill to be able to do it without hacking up the meat.
I think it is difficult to remove before cooking. Never knew anyone to do it.
Also, I find handling it rather gross so I don’t care to fool around with it in its uncooked state.
I live in Cotacachi Ecuador (the high, northern, Andes). No KOSHER salt in all of Quito, the capitol city. Certainly no kosher salt here in the mountains and we are not supposed to bring food items into the country. We do have many small 2.5 pound beef tongues (I am guessing from calves). On Thursday morning at the meat market there were probably 15 tongues ready for sale.
I miss pickled tongue. Grew up in the San Fernando Valley.
Is there a substitute for kosher salt? I can get very good sea salt here but it is $16.00/pound. Pretty pricey for one tongue.
Can I safely use the same brine for more than one tongue?
Thank you.
Yes, you can use any salt. Salt without iodine or other additives (like anti-caking agents), is recommended because they can effect the flavor of the finished product, but pretty much any salt can be used safely. If you don’t have access to pink salt (DQ curing salt #1) you need to cut the brining time to no more than 5 days, as that is what prevents things like botulism. I’m not sure what the meat handling standards are in your area, but you can safely go without the pink salt in the US with the shortened brine time. You can use the brine for multiple tongues as long as they are all fully submerged in the brine for the entire brining period. Good luck!
I think I purchased the pink curing salt on either Ebay or Amazon for about a dollar or two and I found someone who was offering free shipping. You only need a small amount. I have enough to supply a whole deli case in a supermarket! You could probably buy Kosher salt on line also. Hope you try the tongue. It’s really worthwhile.
Let us know.
Haven’t done this before so here goes…I went a little overboard with the brine and left the tongue in it for 18 days. My recipe advised me to put the raw tongue in the brine mixture, it also said curing salt was optional if you could not find any. I finally found pink curing salt on the 9th day and added it to the brine on day 9. I just boiled it up with onions, carrots, bay leaves and garlic, I have peeled it and it looks pink and beautiful. Has anyone else left the tongue in the brine for longer than 10 days?
I would recommend starting over. 9 days without pink salt is pretty long time. Even if you ignore the risk of botulism, over-brining usually results in an overly salty taste and a mushy or spongy texture to the meat.
Never thought about the the risk of botulism. How interesting.
Enjoyed the information I have not had any pickle d cows tongue since I was about 15 yrs old I live in the south so it hard to find very many Jewish dishes I’m looking forward to making this very soon
Where were you when I was looking for tongue-pickling recipes?
Always loved braised tongue.
I’d never had pickled tongue, but bought 3 pork tongues a few months ago. Couldn’t find a recipe anywhere, but finally just put something together, and they came out good, and I’m still alive! Now that I’ve found your site, I will try your recipe. I’m sure it will be good. Thanks!
Man, did I get in trouble when I was a kid! I was hungry and found some cooked lamb’s tongues in the fridge. I helped myself to them and spoiled my mom’s plans for dinner that night!
Wow. ive been searching for ways to make jewish deli tongue for a long time and a close friend named Schwartzie finally found this one for me. there are tons of recipes for how to make tongue sandwiches but none like they do in a jewish deli.
i just finished 8 day brine and just put in oven. cant wait for 6 hours to pass by.
I grew up on this as my grandmother used to make it for us as kids.
I followed this recipe to the letter.
After it was finished I tried it and it’s soooooo salty, it burns. Like still burning 10 minutes after tasting it. Like hot sauce in my mouth burning from saltiness! It tastes amazing, except for the saltiness.
What did I do wrong?!
My best guess is the type or brand of salt you used. While this recipe is from 2009 I am fairly certain the author used Diamond Kosher salt. If you used Morton Kosher it would be somewhat too salty, but any brand of table salt or sea salt it would be much too salty. Diamond Kosher has larger crystal than Morton’s Kosher and significantly larger than table or sea salt, so its much less salty by volume and weight. There is a good conversion chart at the end of this article https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/prevent-measurement-mishaps-with-this-simple-salt-conversion-chart-article
Well…. There you have it.
I more than doubled the amount of Morton’s in weight. I should have measured out less than half by weight.
1lb Diamond Kosher Salt ≠ 1lb Morton’s Kosher Salt.
Any recommendations on what to do with this now?
I can’t
Best option is to simmer it in plain water for 5 -10 minutes and see if it improves.
Thank you!
I actually figured I couldn’t make this any worse so I tried rinsing it and letting it soak in fresh water overnight in the fridge. The color isn’t the best but it was a success as far as taste!
Thank you for the reply and I learned so much from this as I’m not much of a chef. I’ll definitely be making this again taking into account what I learned here.
@philip & amy
so you are both using the recipe above and you have found its the best one?
@marc
This is the only recipe I tried and I really screwed it up bad because of the salt issue. Seems I over measured based on the conversion. If you give it a try with the conversion, let us know how it comes out as I want to try again. Best of luck.