Curing and smoking - a trip into the past
Several years ago, a good friend alerted me to an interesting way to prepare ox tongue. He pointed me to a reference in Laura Mason & Catherine Brown's The Taste of Britain to Suffolk cured tongue. A Suffolk cure involves 'pickling' the meat in a brine made from salt, black treacle and stout. Although the passage describes this as a way to cure, cook and press tongue, the authors state that there is a smoked version in an Elizabeth David book. Now that really did interest me! Unfortunately, this was before the days of extensive internet information, and Mrs David's recipes are never detailed or precise. Indeed, when I eventually did acquire a copy of the relevant book ( Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen ), what I found was less a recipe than a jigsaw of hints to inspire someone who already knows what they're doing. Fast-forward fifteen or more years to the present: I am a much more experienced cook, practised at basic curing, and with a much exp...