The Tasting of the Lambs

After letting the tongues pickle in their jars for 4 days, the moment of tasting truth arrived.  We were very anxious about the final product for a couple of reasons.  First, the pickling spices had turned the brine an unappetizing yellow.  The 90-minute steam canner processing time seemed excessively long, and because the tongues seemed to have actually shrunk during processing, we worried that they looked hard and rubbery.

However, we gathered our courage, whetted our appetites and did our best to approach the tasting with a positive - and hopeful - attitude.

And voila!  They were edible - and then some!  Not at all tough or rubbery, they were surprising tender.  The center parts of the tongue were the best - stringy yet tender, with a robust yet mellow flavor.

 Surprisingly tart, the vinegary brine was a bit stronger than Jeff recalled from ye olde Roget's Pickled Lamb Tongue era.  However, he qualified his culinary review with the caveat that he usually only ate them after drinking quite a bit, so his memory could be a little distorted.

We'll be tweaking the recipe for next year.  Toning down the vinegariness, eliminating the pickling spice, but perhaps using some other spices/flavoring (tba), and packing them more tightly in smaller jars (we used full quart jars).  So, see you next year. And in the meantime, bon appetit!

The Silencing of the Lambs

Got a hankering for pickled lamb’s tongues?  A real jones for that bar food staple of yesteryear?  

Well, you’re out of luck unless you have strong sense of culinary adventure, not a lot else to do, and some strong-stomached friends willing to lend a hand.  This delightful delicacy is no longer commercially available, so we thought we’d take a stab at trying to whip up a batch of homemade pickled lamb’s tongues. Why not, right?

The hankering came from our pal Jeff, whose fond memories of this tasty, tonguey treat left us curious enough to put our culinary skills to the test.  Luckily, we were able to find excellent guidance and step by step instructions on Dave’s Cupboard blog.

What follows is a blow by blow report, plus some photos, of the adventure.  


1.  We special ordered the tongues through Mazzeo’s Meats

at Guido’s Market in Pittsfield, MA. They came frozen in a 10lb. carton. 

2.  The first step was the curing.  After rinsing the tongues, we brought them to a boil in a mixture of water and curing salt, then soaked in this brine overnight in the refrigerator.  They were quite pinked up the next day.

3.  But before we did boiled ‘em up, we pulled out 4 tongues for our supper that night.  I used this recipe, which involved braising them for over 1 ½ hours, slicing them, sitting up a nice little sauce, then serving them on a bed of the braised veggies (onions, carrots and parsnips).  

Reviews ranged from, “Ew. Nasty.” to “Not that bad, actually.”  Okay, so not something you’d go out of your way to prepare... or eat.  Only mildy lamby but with a deep, musky tonguey/organy flavor.  

4.  Back to the pickling process.  The next day we poured off the curing brine, rinsed the tongues, mixed up a batch of cooking brine and brought them to a boil again. 

 Once cooled, we peeled them -- the much anticipated highlight of the project.  It required only a moderate level of surgical skill, but was a weirdly satisfying process.

5.  We packed the skinned tongues into wide-mouthed quart canning jars, added pickling brine, and processed them in the pressure steam canner.  

The canner was kind of scary.  In between shots of tequila we checked the pressure gauge to be sure it wasn’t about to explode.  

6.  Once the processing time was up and the canner had cooled, we pulled the jars out of the canmer.  Bummer.  One jar hadn’t sealed and had leaked its juices everywhere. The rest looked pretty decent, although the tongues seemed to have shrunk and looked kind of rubbery, the pickling spices had turned the brine an unappetizing pee-yellow, and there didn’t seem to be quite enough brine in the jars.  Other than that, they looked delicious.

7.  Then the hardest part.  We have to let the tongues cure for 3-4 more days before the taste test.

8.  The verdict: To be revealed Wednesday, Dec. 22 - stay tuned!