How To Dry Tongues

This recipe for drying tongues comes from an early 18th-century English manuscript, circa 1700. At this time, preservation of meats by salting, brining, and smoking was essential for ensuring a year-round supply, especially before the age of refrigeration. Curing tongues was common in households aiming to use every part of the animal and create flavorful, long-keeping foods often enjoyed sliced thin at table or used in pies and savory dishes. The use of 'peter salt' indicates an awareness of potassium nitrate's preserving and color-fixing properties—a precursor to modern curing salts—while the smoke from wet hay imparted both flavor and preservative qualities. This reflects both the resourcefulness and the palate of an era where frugality and ingenuity were necessities.

Historically, the brining process would have used a large ceramic or wooden vat or barrel for soaking and storing the tongues. Tongues were manipulated by hand, and the brine would be mixed using a wooden paddle. Smoking traditionally took place in a designated smokehouse or over an open hearth, where wet hay would be burned gently on a smoldering fire to surround the meat with aromatic smoke. Today, food-safe plastic or glass containers, stainless steel pots, and modern refrigeration replicate the brining stage, while a domestic smoker or oven with wet wood chips can replicate the smoking method described.