Slow Smoked Veal Tongue

[Chef Fowke]

I have 20lbs of veal tongue from a local organic, free roaming rancher in BC. I am curing them over night and am going to smoke them tomorrow --- serving them like pulled pork.

Anyone done this before? Any suggestions - or advice?

[jackal10]

Tongue has a vary fibrous texture, so not sure how successful it would be pulled. Traditionally it is pressed and sliced across the grain

Even better cold.

[Nicholas Ellan]

Interestingly, I also have veal tongues from BC in my freezer, and was smoking pork shoulder on Wednesday for Canada Day, and planned to pop those in as an experiment.

I originally planned to braise the suckers, but a slow smoke could have a similar or better effect. Very low heat (200-225) for several hours to achieve a tender result will definitely be necessary. I was also planning to initially boil the tongues in the traditional method to remove the membrane, but this is probably not necessary for a veal tongue, right? And then I was going to plate it with fresh herbs in a salad for the more adventurous eaters - pulled pork sandwiches for the rest.

The end result will definitely be as tender as pulled pork, but the meat won't pull in the same sense. I would be confident that smoked tongue sandwiches would turn out fantastically, though.

Good info in this thread here. Quoting the most relevant post:

Oooh, I love tongue -- especially smoked. I haven't done lamb or veal tongue, only full-on cow tongue which has a thin and tough membrane on the outside. I haven't found a decent way to take it off except to boil it for two or three hours. So as not to be completely unculinary I add all sorts of candy spices and a lot of pepper. After I pull it out and peel off the membrane (it's gets easier to peel the longer you boil it) I then smoke it until it's meat fork tender -- about 2 to 3 hours. Slice it thin and serve.

Edited June 29, 2009 by Nicholas Ellan (log)