Corned Beef Tongue – Salted Ox Tongue

So the East Indians of Bombay in India (or should I say Mumbai?) eat tongue as a delicacy for parties and events and birthdays and weddings, and for any other reason we can find to eat it. It’s yummy! Anyways, apart from the regular beef tongue roast recipe or tongue masala curry, there’s also the corned tongue or salted tongue that everyone loves. So here’s how to make this awesome offal dish from a disappearing culture! If you’d prefer to try something less complicated, make a stir fry of tongue instead.

ingredients for The Special Salted Beef Tongue or Corned Beef Tongue?

The Ingredients we use for corned tongue are:
1 large beef tongue or 2 small tongues – approximately 1.5 kg
(*Note – for this test we used four – with only saltpetre and 2 with saltpetre and khair)
1 tbsp saltpetre or saltpeter (Or the more modern curing salt)
juice of 2 sourlimes or 5 tbsp vinegar
10 cloves – Optional
10 peppercorns – Optional
2 sticks cinnamon – Optional
1 tablespoon Khat powder (Khair Tree bark powder) – Optional

It’s better to buy the tongue skinned since skinning it without losing the flesh takes a bit of a learning curve. Or if you want, take a sharp knife, hold the tongue vertically, create a slit in the skin, and pull down towards the ground to take off strips at a time.

Once the tongue is ready, wash it and put it in a large steel or clay pot or a glass dish. Prick the beef tongue all over with a fork or a slim knife. Next, rub in the saltpeter and leave aside for a few hours. If you have access to it, curing salt is a better option than saltpetre. Plus it’s USDA approved.

Also, if you want the tongue to get pinker, add more saltpetre. We don’t do that, because remember, saltpeter is still a chemical. Potassium Nitrate or saltpeter was once used with abundance by cooks and other people handling meat to retain the pink color.

In modern times though, Sodium Nitrate has replaced Potassium Nitrate. And maybe one-day Sodium Nitrate won’t be used either. Most people use a mix of curing salts that are Food Safety approved curing salts.

And anyway, why add more chemicals to food? The pink color is no test of quality. So use less of saltpetre and the tongue still tastes as yummy as ever!

Why use curing salt or Saltpetre?

But if you’re wondering exactly why we still continue to use saltpeter or curing salts in the tongue, it’s because we want to live. Simple as that!

Saltpetre or curing salts prevent the growth of clostridium botulinum bacteria. These clostridium bacteria usually grow in meat and cause botulism in the form of weakness, fatigue, paralysis and more. And nope, we don’t want to die, nor do we want to get our loved ones to get sick. So following centuries-old traditions and the work of scientists everywhere, we will continue to use curing salts or saltpetre while curing tongue or corning tongue.

Then make a mixture of the salt and lime juice along with the other optional ingredients, rub it on the tongue and leave it aside for 4 to 5 days.

You know, the longer it marinades, the softer the tongue gets. If the weather is cool enough, you don’t have to refrigerate it. (Just as a side note, if you use too much sour lime the tongue gets really stringy like above.)

Anyways, we did a test to check the difference between using khat or not using khat in our tongue. Khat is the bark of the khair tree that’s traditionally used in India to give meat its pink color. Khair is the Senegalia catechu tree that’s found in Southern Asia and South East Asia and often called catechu, kher, cachou, or black cutch.

So to test, we had 4 different tongues. Two using khat or khair tree bark and two without them. All the other ingredients were the same.

Every day, you can turn the tongues over to make sure the juices are absorbed in those tongues. Or you can just forget about the tongue and go find it on the last day. No matter how you do it, this traditional method of curing beef tongue gives us some really tasty tongue.

On the nth day, be it the 2nd day or 4th or 5th or 7th day, put the tongue in a pressure cooker and add sufficient water to cover it. Once the cooker reaches full pressure, cook the tongue for about an hour.

Now here’s tongue one that has the khat in it. Chop it up into slices and it’s ready to serve. Or use in sandwiches.

And here’s tongue 2 that doesn’t have to khat or Khair tree bark in it. Slice it up!

If you look at it, it’s as pink or even more so naturally pink than the tongue with the khat powder. So maybe, the khat is not that useful. Anyways, we make corned tongue without khat most of the time, though some of our relatives still used khat!

I would have also told you the story of the relatives that thought khat or saltpeter was the same as MSG. But I’m a good niece, so I won’t!

Here’s another ox tongue from a different week that was made drier and sliced finer. You can use a lot of different variations while corning the tongue. It just depends on your preference.

Did I mention, instead of a regular knife, it’s better to use a good carving knife or a sharp knife to slice the tongue into finer slices and serve?

Tips For Salted Tongue or Ox Tongue

• We wet cure this tongue for cooking. To dry cure, there’s a different recipe.
• Store in the fridge or in a cool place while curing.
• Increase or reduce the quantity of spices to your liking.
• The same recipe works for corning beef/ox tongue or any other tongue.
• The same recipe works for other cuts of meat too.
• If you want to cure minced beef, try this recipe.
• If you don’t want to corn the tongue, try a tongue moilee curry.
• Although you could eat tongue all by itself, it’s best not to. Serve with moong dal or masoor dal, and wholewheat chapatis, puris, ajwain puris, or jeera rice.

How to serve corned tongue?

Option 1: As a snack, you can serve it on a bed of lettuce with green chutney or tomato chutney like we do! They disappear quite quickly at parties, so you’ll probably need to corn more than one tongue for your dinner or family gathering.

Option 2: Although you could eat tongue all by itself, it’s best not to. Serve with moong dal or masoor dal and chapatis, puris, or rice.

Option 3: Beef tongue or ox tongue is traditionally served in a large platter with boiled cauliflower and green peas at our weddings. Of course, the platter next to it might just be foogias or orias, or some other traditional dish.

Option 4: These tongue slices also do great in sandwiches, don’t you think? We used to love finding corned tongue sandwiches in our lunch tiffin at school recess. Some memories!

Is this the same as your mom’s recipe for the salted corned tongue? What’s different? Comment and let us know!

Questions about Corned Tongue

Is Ox Tongue Really Tongue?

Yes, it is the cut of meat that is from the tongue of a bovine animal. It’s the part of the meat considered offal along with the heart, liver, kidneys, udders, brains, trotters, and tripe.

What Does Ox Tongue Taste Like?

Ox tongue taste similar to the other parts of red meat but being fattier tastes chewier.

What Is The Difference Between Ox And Beef Tongue?

Ox tongue, neat’s tongue, or beef tongue are all one and the same, the tongue of a bovine animal such as a cow (female) or bull, ox, or bullock (male). Females are usually not used for meat in some cultures because they’re considered holy, while in others they’re simply not used since they’re more useful for milk production.

Why Corn Tongue?

The simple answer to the question of why we corn tongue or cure tongue is so that it becomes more flavorful and tender. There’s just that certain oomph to the taste that curing adds.

Why Do We Have To Pay More For Beef Tongue?

Depending on the breed, the weight of a cow or bull can vary from 250 kgs to over 1000 kgs. The tongue of the animal, however, only weighs between 1 to 2 kg. This difference, plus the demand for ox tongue leads to an increased cost.

What If I Can’t Find Salt Petre Near Me?

If you can’t find salt peter / salt petre, use an approved curing salt. It’s also sold as a prague powder. Some of the well known curing salts are Tender Quick, Instaquick, Hoosier Hill Prague Powder, Misty Gully Curing Salts, Smoke Dust Curing Salts, and a lot more.

How Long Can I Store Corned Tongue?

Corned Tongue can be stored in a refrigerator for about 3-4 days or in the freezer for upto 3 months in air-tight containers.

Other Recipes to try

• Mutton Paya Khudi
• Goat Tripe or Vajri Khudi
• Burnt Onion Rice
• Pork Vindaloo Recipe
• ‘Cuchumber’ Salad, not cucumber