The modern packing house

by F. W. Wilder

—The tongue should receive careful attention from the time it is taken out of the head, until it is cured. In taking the tongue out of the head it should be left smooth on the bottom, leaving on all fat. It should be cut close to the jaws, taking off with it all fat possible, as it is worth much more on the tongue than if left on the head.

Washing.

—The tongue should be thoroughly washed in warm water, say at 80° F., as soon as taken from the head. Mechanical washers like that shown in the accompanying illustration, [Fig. 78], are frequently used to good advantage. Immediately upon washing they should be chilled in clean, cold water, when they are hung to drip and then sent to the cooler.

Hanging.

—In hanging, the tongue should be suspended from a hook at the point where the tongue was attached to the jaw bone and the tip also fastened upon the same hook. This gives the tongue a compact appearance, but if it is hung up by the point alone when warm, its own weight stretches it out of shape, and it never looks as well as when hung as described. Tongues should be hung in a temperature of from 32° to 34° F. for forty-eight hours.

Trimming.

—Tongues are selected for trimming into short and long cuts. In trimming, the side bones should be cut equally and the side meats cut with a long knife and a draw movement so as to make a smooth appearing tongue. “Long cut tongue” means that the gullet and about two joints of the windpipe are left on. In “short cut tongue” the gullet is entirely cut away. Long cut tongue should average not less than five pounds in weight. The trimmings are retrimmed, the lean parts being suitable for sausage and the fat for tank.

Curing.

—They should first be put into a plain pickle, eighty degrees strong, at a temperature of 38° to 40° F. for twenty-four hours. This is done to remove all the saliva from the tongue, which has the effect of making the pickle “strong,” if the tongues are put direct into the curing pickle.

After treatment with plain pickle they are put into a sweet pickle to be cured, the sweet pickle consisting of 280 pounds of salt, English salt being preferable, to which is added ten pounds of saltpetre and twenty-four pounds of sugar to each 160 gallons of water. This should be stirred well to insure thorough dissolving of the ingredients. The tongues are then put into barrels, hogsheads or vats, as the case may be, and sufficient pickle put on to submerge them. At the end of five days they should be shifted from one package to another, and at the end of fifteen days they should be rehandled, this being done to bring the pickle into thorough contact with the different pieces. Tongues should be fully cured at the end of thirty days, ready to smoke, or for shipment. When tongues are packed in barrels, after being fully cured, they should be packed, 202 pounds to the barrel, filling the package up with the same pickle in which they were cured. They are then ready for shipment. Tongues readily become excessively salty if allowed to remain in cure too long. It is desirable to have them “off cure” about as wanted.