So I saved the tongue from my elk last fall. I just got around to pulling it out of the freezer and doing something with it. I cured the tongue using diggin dogs cure calculator. It actually stayed in the cure for MUCH longer than I had planned (life got busy). It was in about a month.
I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it, so I just put the cure, salt and sugar in the bag. I decided on making a rueben out of it, so when I cooked it I added some spices to the bag. I just scraped together what I could from the cabinet that was similar to corned beef seasonings.
I didn't really want a fall apart texture, hoping for slices, so I decided on a temp of 145. Initial plan was 36 hrs. I put it in Sunday morning, was going to take it out Monday evening. Well Tuesday morning rolled around and I remembered I hadn't taken in out yet. Oops. So, 145 for 48 hrs is what I ended up with. I took it out of the water and placed it in the fridge. Fast forward to tonight (Wednesday evening). Sandwich time. After procuring the necessary rueben ingredients, I pulled the tongue out of the fridge to see what I had.
The layer of taste buds certainly didn't peel right off like I'd seen online, but then again those tongues were boiled. So I just took my filet knife and carefully removed it all.
Sliced thin, and eaten cold, it was delicious. Very ham-like in texture and flavor. I could have eaten a cold cut sandwich out of it and been happy.
I did a quick fry in a hot cast iron with some bacon grease then assembled th sandwich. Another great part was the saurkraut. It was homemade from a buddy of mine. Absolutely delicious stuff.
The rueben was everything I'd hoped for and more. Very very tasty! This is the first tongue I've saved from hunting and it certainly won't be the last. (The rye bread the store had was a very dark rye, so it's not burnt)
I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it, so I just put the cure, salt and sugar in the bag. I decided on making a rueben out of it, so when I cooked it I added some spices to the bag. I just scraped together what I could from the cabinet that was similar to corned beef seasonings.
I didn't really want a fall apart texture, hoping for slices, so I decided on a temp of 145. Initial plan was 36 hrs. I put it in Sunday morning, was going to take it out Monday evening. Well Tuesday morning rolled around and I remembered I hadn't taken in out yet. Oops. So, 145 for 48 hrs is what I ended up with. I took it out of the water and placed it in the fridge. Fast forward to tonight (Wednesday evening). Sandwich time. After procuring the necessary rueben ingredients, I pulled the tongue out of the fridge to see what I had.
The layer of taste buds certainly didn't peel right off like I'd seen online, but then again those tongues were boiled. So I just took my filet knife and carefully removed it all.
Sliced thin, and eaten cold, it was delicious. Very ham-like in texture and flavor. I could have eaten a cold cut sandwich out of it and been happy.
I did a quick fry in a hot cast iron with some bacon grease then assembled th sandwich. Another great part was the saurkraut. It was homemade from a buddy of mine. Absolutely delicious stuff.
The rueben was everything I'd hoped for and more. Very very tasty! This is the first tongue I've saved from hunting and it certainly won't be the last. (The rye bread the store had was a very dark rye, so it's not burnt)