Most meats that have been properly cured can also be smoked. It is so simple, once you have the facilities and the skill to maintain the smoke at about 80°F. Since the meat will be fully cooked after it is smoked, you can cold-smoke it for as long as you choose, within reason. Ideally, it should be smoked just long enough to get a good flavor but not long enough to dry out the meat. If you are smoking the meat for long or unrefrigerated storage, however, it will be necessary to dry it out somewhat. If you plan to cook the meat soon after smoking, color is a good indication of readiness. Most nicely smoked meats and fish take on a mahogany brown color. But color alone is not a foolproof measure of the quality of smoked meat, since many commercial operators use dye in or on the meat.
The first step in cold-smoking meat is to cure it with salt by either the dry-salt or the brine method. These subjects were treated at length in chapters 1 through 4 of this part (part three). At the risk of boring the reader, I repeat some of the cures or variations I’ve discussed previously in the recipes below. My fear is that some no-salt freak will omit this important step, or cut back on the cure, thereby making the smoked meat dangerous. Even with plenty of salt, most cold-smoked meats should be thoroughly cooked before you eat them, although raw smoked meats, usually thinly sliced, are considered to be delicacies in some quarters. I have eaten uncooked meats from time to time, and I have no objection to the practice if I am certain that the meat was handled properly before and after curing and smoking. I have even eaten Middle Eastern kibbeh, made with raw ground meat, but I can’t recommend the practice to others—and certainly not with supermarket fare these days.
Cold-Smoked Hams
If you have salt- or sugar-cured a ham successfully, the smoking part is easy. It can be aged and then smoked, or it can be smoked first and then aged. I prefer the latter method. (The smoking period can be considered part of the total aging time.) After the salt equalization period, wash the ham with warm water, then hang it in the smokehouse by the shank to dry for several hours or, better, overnight. Since the ham is (or should be) completely cured, the temperature is not as critical as for some other smoking operations.
The cured ham can be cold-smoked for 2 days or several weeks, depending on your schedule and on how hungry you are. I recommend a minimum of 2 weeks for cold-smoking. If the smokehouse is screened, it is not necessary to keep the smoke going for the entire 2 weeks. If the fire goes out for a few hours, no harm will be done.
It’s best to hang the hams by the shank end, using strong cotton string. My father used withes of green hickory for tying the hams; my wife’s father used strips of yucca leaves, called bear grass in her neck of the woods.
The smoked and aged ham will be quite hard and should be cooked pretty much like the salt-cured hams described previously (or by one of the recipes below). If you don’t want to cook a whole ham, have it sliced into steaks, saving the smoked hocks for such dishes as hoppin’ John. The steaks should be soaked overnight in water before cooking, unless they are going into a stew.
Smoked hams to be aged can be put into muslin bags and hung with a string tied around the bag at the shank end of the ham. For security, it’s best to fold over the top of the bag before wrapping the string around it. Some people paint the bag with a wash made with various materials, including lime, clay, and flour. Others dust the surface of the ham with a mixture of finely ground red and black pepper. Unless insects are a problem, I think the open-air method is best, provided the ham can be hung freely and in a cool place. If you don’t have a bag, a clean, well-used cotton sheet will do. Tear out a square, center the butt of the ham on it, bring the corners together over the shank, and tie off tightly.
Cooking a Cold-Smoked Ham
A home-smoked, cured ham is vastly different from—and better than—a supermarket cured ham. At least to my taste. But it must be freshened and cooked differently. Usually, the result will be much firmer than a supermarket ham, some of which even have a spongy texture. In most cases, a cured ham should be sliced very thin before it is served.
In addition to the recipes below, those set forth for salt-cured hams can also be used for smoked hams.
Before setting forth his recipe in A Man’s Taste, published by The Junior League of Memphis, Dr. Eph Wilkinson said, “The quality of the ham makes all the difference in any country ham recipe. I grew up on a farm in East Tennessee where we killed hogs every fall. The hams were sugar-cured and smoked with hickory and sassafras. I sure wish I could get just one of these hams!” I, too, would like to have one of those hams, but I tested Dr. Eph’s recipe with an ordinary salt-cured and smoked ham of my own devising, and I found it to be a very good one. I’m not sure what the Coca-Cola does, but it certainly doesn’t hurt anything.
THE SIMMERING
1 whole country ham, smoked
1 quart Coca-Cola
1 teaspoon whole cloves
6 allspice berries
6 black peppercorns
cool spring water
Scrub the ham and soak it overnight in cool water. Weigh the ham. Cut off the ham hock with a hacksaw, if necessary, to fit the ham in your pot or roaster. (When choosing a utensil, remember that the ham should be completely covered with liquid.) Put the ham into the pot, then add the Coca-Cola, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, and enough spring water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for 25 minutes per pound of ham. Let the ham cool in the liquid.
THE BAKING
1 cup Coca-Cola
1 cup water
Simmered ham
lots of whole cloves
lots of dark brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Select a baking pan or roaster large enough to hold the ham. Put a mixture of the Coca-Cola and 1 cup water into the bottom of the pan. Trim all the skin from the ham, leaving about ½ inch of fat. Stud the ham with whole cloves spaced ¼ inch apart. Cover the ham (and cloves) with a ½-inch layer of dark brown sugar. Bake for 1 hour. Turn the heat down to 250°F and bake for 30 minutes more. The sugar should caramelize and appear dark brown or almost black. Cool and slice thinly.
In Great Britain, a baked ham is traditionally served at Christmas. (Baked ham is also traditional Christmas fare in Sweden and Finland.) The typical British ham is a little sweeter than most European hams. It is sugar-cured, and before sugar was widely available, honey was used in the cure; molasses is also used at times. British hams are lightly smoked with oak wood.
1 whole cold-smoked ham
3 cooking apples, peeled and chopped
3 ribs celery with leafy tops, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2½ cups hard cider
1½ cups dark molasses
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
12 black peppercorns
whole cloves
dark brown sugar
Put the ham in a large container of cold water. Soak it for at least a day, preferably longer, changing the water several times.
When you are ready to cook, scrub the ham and put it into a container large enough to hold it and add enough water to cover it. Add all the ingredients except the cloves and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 hours, adding more water if needed. Turn off the heat and let the ham cool overnight in the liquid.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Skin the ham, leaving much of the fat on the meat. (The skinning should be done with the aid of a small, sharp knife.) Make crisscross cuts over the fat and insert a clove in the center of each diamond. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the ham and put it into the hot oven for 5 or 10 minutes. Check it a time or two after 5 minutes—and don’t let the crust burn.
Leftover Ham Recipes
Ideally, a whole ham, cooked as above, should be put on the table at a festive dinner, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. What’s left over can be eaten in various ways, such as in sandwiches or casseroles and stews. Here are a few of my favorite recipes.
My mother made this dish frequently (by request) and called it ham pie. Almost always, it was made with the trimmings taken from around the bone of what was left of a baked country ham. Mother never did measure the ingredients—and I don’t, either.
chicken eggs
ham bits and pieces
dumpling strips cut from rolled pastry
salt and pepper
whole milk
Hard-boil the eggs, peel them, and cut them into slices. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Trim off some ham, and with it, line the bottom of a baking dish or pan about 9 by 13 inches, and about 2 inches deep. (I use a Pyrex dish.) Put a sparse layer of dumpling strips atop the ham, then add a layer of egg slices. Add another layer of ham, dumpling strips, and eggs. Add a layer of ham. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add a crisscrossed layer of dumpling strips, then cover it all with the milk.
Bake the pie for about 30 minutes. Then turn on the broiler and lightly brown the top. Serve hot.
Although I don’t offer exact measurements for this recipe, the dish benefits from lots of ham and sparse use of dumplings—but, of course, a good deal depends on how much meat you’ve got and on how many folks you’ve got to feed. If you don’t have a recipe for dumpling strips, try this:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
about ½ cup cold milk
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the vegetable oil. Slowly stir in the milk, using just enough to make a rather stiff dough. Put the dough on a well-floured surface and roll it out about ⅛ inch thick. Cut the dough into strips 1 inch wide and use as directed.
While writing this book, I looked at a number of books about the chuck-wagon cooks of the Old West, looking for recipes and ways of cooking salt pork, cured bacon, and so on. I didn’t find much information of culinary value, but I did find some good stories. Just the titles of the books were interesting, such as Shoot Me a Biscuit. On the trail, of course, the cowboys ate mostly beans, coffee, biscuits, fresh beef, and cured meats. Beans were always available, partly because they traveled well, stored compactly, and didn’t spoil.
In one of the books, a cowboy fresh off the trail went into a swanky restaurant in St. Louis or somewhere. He couldn’t read the menu, so, after some hemming and hawing, he asked the waiter to identify all the entries that contained beans. The waiter spoke, but the words didn’t help.
“Put your finger on them that contains beans,” the cowboy said. Somewhat impatiently, the waiter put his finger on a single entry, knowing that he wasn’t going to get much of an order or tip from anyone looking for beans. “That’s the only one?” the cowboy asked. The waiter assured him that it was the only bean dish available at the establishment. “Well, you hold this one,” the cowboy said, putting his left index finger on the entry and sweeping his right hand over the entire menu, “and bring me an order of all the rest of this stuff.”
I don’t claim that my pinto bean recipe would have sold that cowboy on the idea of eating another spoonful of beans, but I do recommend it to anyone who has been eating pinto beans that have been soaked all night in water and boiled without a good ham bone.
1 ham bone, with some meat on it
1 pound dried pinto beans
½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
salt, if needed
Put the ham bone into a large pot or dutch oven. Pour in the beans and cover with water. Add the red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover tightly, and cook for 6 to 7 hours, adding more water from time to time if needed. Season with salt, if needed.
Serve hot with sliced Vidalia or Texas onions and corn pone made from stone-ground meal. If the ham bone has lots of meat left on it (as well it should), I can make a whole meal of this dish. Leftover beans can be mashed, shaped into patties, and fried on a griddle.
At our house, most leftover ham is used in sandwiches. Usually, these are made as needed or as wanted, and require nothing more than white sandwich bread and mayonnaise. For a light meal, my wife and I make a sandwich of swiss cheese, rye bread, Dijon or Creole mustard, lots and lots of thinly sliced ham, and maybe a little lettuce. The thinner the ham, the better your sandwich will be. Cut the sandwiches in half and serve with thick potato chips and huge dill pickles.
After the first edition of this work came out, a critic asked why anyone would spend good money on a book that contained instructions for making a ham sandwich.
Well . . . after much hemming and hawing, turning and tossing, I have left the sandwich suggestions in the revised edition of this modest work, simply because some people (never mind who) really do need some help, not only with a deli-type rye-bread sandwich, but even with an ordinary white-bread ham sandwich.
Here’s my advice. Use very fresh white sandwich bread. Smear 2 slices quite liberally with a good mayonnaise. Then sandwich a dozen or so pieces of thinly sliced ham. No lettuce.
It’s that simple. Try it. Cut the sandwich in half diagonally. Pick up a half in your right hand and look at it. Go ahead. Take a bite right out of the middle. This one bite will be worth more than the small price of this little book.
Cold-Smoked Bacon
The procedure in chapter 3, Dry-Cured Meats (page 288), for making salt pork can be extended for cold-smoked bacon. After the cure, wash the belly slab, dry it, hang it in a smokehouse, and cold-smoke it for at least a full day, or up to a week. Some people like honey and pepper on their bacon. I think it’s best to add these ingredients after the smoking is completed.
If you want a good sugar cure, especially for bacon, try this old British formula, adapted from The Country Kitchen.
1 pound salt
1 pound brown sugar
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 ounce saltpeter
approximately 12 pounds bacon
1¾ pints wine vinegar
Mix the salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, and saltpeter, then divide the mixture in half. Rub half the cure into the meat, covering all surfaces nicely. Leave the meat on a wooden shelf or table in a cool place, turning daily. After 5 days, mix the rest of the cure ingredients with the wine vinegar. Rub the bacon with part of this mixture. Turn daily, rubbing again with part of the liquid, for 5 days or so, or until the cure has been used up.
Punch holes in two corners of the bacon, then insert cotton string or hickory withe. Hang the bacon in a smokehouse or cold-smoker for at least 24 hours, preferably for a week or so. This bacon will keep for several weeks at room temperature, and longer in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen.
Here’s an old recipe adapted from Cooking in Wyoming, which contains a chapter or two on pioneer cooking.
2 ounces saltpeter
½ cup brown sugar
plenty of salt
water
80 pounds side meat for bacon
black pepper
starch
cayenne pepper
Pulverize the saltpeter, then mix it with the brown sugar and 4 cups of salt. Dampen the mix slightly with a little water and rub it all over the meat. Lay the meat skin side down on boards for 9 days. Then rub thoroughly with more salt; use all the salt that will adhere to the meat. Let lie for 3 days.
Hang the side meat in the smokehouse and cold-smoke it for 3 days. Sprinkle each piece with black pepper. Have ready a cloth sack for each slab of bacon. Mix a solution of starch and water, adding a little red pepper to prevent mold and keep the flies away. Wet the sacks with the starch solution, making them stiff. Put each piece of meat in a cloth sack, tie the end, and hang in a cool place. (In warm climates, it’s best to refrigerate the bacon if it is to be kept very long. Bacon, being fatty, tends to go rancid if kept too long after curing and smoking.)
Cold-Smoked Sausage
Be warned that smoked sausage can be dangerous, leading even to deadly botulism. The problem, as I see it, is that (1) the meat is not normally given a proper salt cure, and (2) the meat-grinding process tends to spread any bacteria that might be present on the surface. With pork sausage, the inherent fat may work to your advantage because lard is a known preservative. In other words, fatty sausage may be safer than lean sausage. Also, the hog casing somewhat protects the surface of the sausage. But there may be other opinions on this matter. My best advice on smoked sausage is that it be cooked thoroughly and refrigerated or frozen as soon as the smoking period is over. If you want to keep the sausage without refrigeration, it’s best to cook it, layer the cooked links in a clean crock or other suitable container, and cover it with lard. This is an old-timey method of preserving sausage.
I don’t remember how my father preserved our sausage, but I do remember that (1) it wasn’t left in the smokehouse for very long, and (2) it was very, very good.
I agree that good sausage is hard to beat for brute flavor. Here’s my recipe, made with rather lean meat. Traditionally, pork sausage is made from all the trimmings, but some of the better sausage is made with the whole hog and is called whole-hog sausage. Some farmers of my acquaintance boast of putting a whole ham or two in with the sausage.
¼ cup finely ground sea salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
2½ tablespoons dried sage
1–2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
10 pounds pork with about 20 percent fat
Mix all the seasonings. Chill the pork, cut it into small chunks, and sprinkle it with the seasonings. Run the pork through a sterilized sausage grinder, using a fine wheel. Stuff the ground meat into pork casings, hang the links in a smokehouse, and cold-smoke for 2 to 3 days. Cook the sausage thoroughly before eating it.
Cold-Smoked Birds
As a rule, the larger the bird, the more time it takes to cure and smoke it properly. In all cases, cold-smoked birds should be cooked before they are eaten. In most cases, it’s best to pluck the birds instead of skinning them.
Pheasant and Chickens
Although the meat is on the dry side, pheasant can be salt-cured and cold-smoked successfully. Start by plucking the birds and removing the heads, feet, and innards. Mix a brine in the proportions of 2 cups salt, 1 cup sugar, and ¼ cup crushed allspice berries per gallon of water. Put the birds into a crock or other suitable nonmetallic container. Pour the brine over the birds, covering them. Then weight the birds with a wooden block or some such object so that they are completely submerged. Leave the birds in the brine for 10 days.
Remove the birds, wash them with clean water, and hang them to dry for several hours. Then cold-smoke the birds for at least 2 hours. The longer they smoke (up to a point), the better the color and flavor will be—and the dryer the flesh. Birds to be baked can be smoked for a couple of hours, barded with bacon, wrapped in aluminum foil, and baked until done. Birds to be used in stews and soups, or cooked by any wet method, can be smoked longer for more flavor.
Chickens can be smoked by this method, but I personally don’t want to start out with supermarket birds or birds that have been raised in compartments, cleaned in a mass operation, and run through a salmonella bath. My concern is freshness and salmonella, plus the fact that most commercial birds are too fat. I eat the birds purchased at the supermarket, but it’s best to cook them as soon as possible. I don’t even want them in my refrigerator these days. There are surely other feelings about this matter; some people can’t bear the thought of eating game birds or barnyard chickens that aren’t inspected by the US Department of Agriculture.
Quail and Small Birds
Quail are very good when cold-smoked, and they are easy to prepare. Simply soak them in a brine (the one for pheasant will do) for a couple of hours, dry them, cold-smoke them for 3 to 4 hours, and cook them by a recipe of your choice. I especially like quail baked with mushroom soup and rice. I am fond of wild quail, but I also like the pen-raised quail for smoking. If you don’t grow your own quail, look for someone in your area who does. I have also been successful with frozen quail from the supermarket.
Other small game birds, such as doves and snipe, can be cold-smoked before cooking. (Personally, however, I prefer to smoke game birds with white meat.) Grouse and Cornish game hens can be smoked, but you’ll need to extend the curing and smoking times.
Turkey
I much prefer wild birds (which, contrary to much opinion, are not as dry, at least before cooking, as domestic birds) or birds that have been raised on the ground (with plenty of room to scratch) instead of in a compartment. A happy bird makes better eating.
More and more these days, people are raising their own turkeys, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a local grower who will sell you a live bird or two. After you chop off its head, draw and pluck it as soon as possible. Wash the bird quickly with salted water, then weigh it and record the figure. Place the bird in a crock or other suitable container and cover it with brine. (The brine formula used for pheasant will do.) Weight the bird with a block of wood or other suitable nonmetallic object so that it stays completely submerged. If the bird weighs less than 10 pounds dressed, leave it in the brine for 1 day per pound; if it weighs between 10 and 15 pounds, 1¼ days per pound; over 15 pounds, 1½ days per pound. It is important also that the bird be cured in a cool place, preferably at 38°F. Every 7 days or so, remove the bird (or birds), stir the brine about, and put the bird back into the brine.
After completing the cure, wash the bird inside and out in fresh water, then hang it to dry. I hang it with a cord tied to each foot, but some people tie a cord around each wing and suspend the bird with the breast down; still others prefer to put the bird in a net bag for hanging. After the bird dries, hang it in the smokehouse and cold-smoke it for at least 2 days, until the skin is a mahogany color. The longer it is cold-smoked, the stronger the flavor—and the dryer the meat will be. After being cold-smoked, the bird should be aged in a cool place for a week or so.
Of course, a turkey smoked by this method should be thoroughly cooked before it is eaten. For baking, preheat the oven to 350°F, wrap the bird with strips of bacon, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh (without touching bone) or the breast, and bake the bird until the internal temperature reaches 180°F. If I know that I have a good bird, I’ll turn off the oven heat when the thermometer reads 160°F, then let the bird coast for an hour or so as the oven cools down. Turkey is best, at least culinarily, when it is cooked to only 145°F or 150°F, but the US Department of Agriculture recommends 180°F, a figure that I feel obligated to report here.
It is possible, of course, to cold-smoke a turkey for a couple of hours and then put it in the oven to cook. The results may be quite tasty, but the deep, rich smoke flavor may not be present in the meat except on the surface.
Wild Ducks and Geese
These days, smoked wild ducks are usually hot-smoked during the cooking process. It is possible, however, to cold-smoke ducks, getting a more intense flavor. Here’s a report by Dr. Andrew Longley from Cundy’s Harbor, Maine, as published in The Maine Way :
Prepare ducks by plucking and dressing as one normally would for baking. Soak the ducks overnight in salted water. Smoke in smokehouse for 36 to 48 hours. (For optimum results, smokehouse should be maintained at 80 degrees.) After smoking is completed, ducks are baked as one would normally prepare ducks. Whistlers, buffle-heads, and black ducks have been smoked with good results.
I recommend that the ducks be drawn, plucked, and salted as soon as possible after the kill. For the brine soak, I recommend at least 2 cups of salt per gallon of water.
The above method also works for wild geese. (It’s best to proceed with a young bird unless you are going to cook it by long stewing.) Soak the bird in brine for 2 days, smoke it for 3 to 4 days, and then cook it with your favorite recipe. I am especially fond of a slowly cooked gumbo made with smoked goose.
Cold-Smoked Small Game
Rabbits and other small game can be cured and smoked quite successfully. Opossum is especially good for smoking. For animals of cottontail size, wash and soak them in a light brine for several hours, put them in a pickle for 5 to 6 hours, then cold-smoke them for a day or so. Whole hares and larger domestic rabbits should be pickled for about 10 hours, or dressed and pickled the same as cottontails.
Cold-Smoked Venison and Large Game
Most game tends to be on the dry side as compared to pork and feedlot cattle. Even so, it can be pickled and cold-smoked. In Russia, for example, bear hams are salt-cured and smoked exactly like pork. The hams, shoulders, and saddle of deer smoke nicely, if you first use a sweetened pickle in the proportions of 1 pound salt, ½ pound brown sugar, 2 tablespoons sodium nitrite (optional), and ½ cup juniper berries per gallon of water. If you have a whole deer and a large pickling container, put the hams on the bottom, the saddle in the middle, and the shoulders on top. (Some people recommend that the deer be aged for a week or so before starting the pickle, but I don’t think this is necessary if you have a good deer that was cleanly killed and promptly field-dressed.) You can also add the ribs and perhaps the tenderloin along with the ribs, but I like to start eating on these right away. Be sure to keep the meat completely submerged in the pickle. After 3 days, remove the top layer or two, dry the meat, and start cold-smoking. Turn the other meats and stir the pickle. After another 3 days, remove the shoulders, dry them, and start cold-smoking. After another 3 days or longer, remove the hams, dry them, and start cold-smoking. The shoulders should be smoked for 1 week, the saddle for 1½ weeks, and the hams for 2 weeks or thereabouts. During cold-smoking, it’s best to rub the venison from time to time with bacon drippings.
Note that the curing and smoking times do not have to be exact if the meat is cooked or frozen shortly after cold-smoking. Note also that large game such as elk and moose can be cured and smoked, but I think it better to separate the rear leg into several roasts instead of trying to cure the whole thing.
Cold-Smoked Mutton Ham
At one time, this dish was quite popular in northern Europe, and it is still eaten in some countries, especially Norway. This recipe has been adapted from The Country Kitchen, a delightfully British book. Mutton has a stronger flavor than lamb, and is not often marketed in the United States. This is a pity, but lamb can also be used. It’s best, of course, to proceed with very fresh meat. Anyone who has a few acres should look into raising lamb and mutton for food. They are relatively easy to butcher as compared to beef, and they don’t have to be scalded and scraped like hogs.
½ pound sea salt
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons saltpeter
1 tablespoon crushed coriander seeds
1 tablespoon crushed allspice
1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
1 fresh leg of lamb or mutton
wine
chopped celery
chopped onions
chopped garlic
Thoroughly mix the salt, brown sugar, saltpeter, coriander, allspice, and peppercorns. Rub the fresh leg of lamb all over with the salt mixture, pushing it in around the exposed bone. Place the leg of lamb on a nonmetallic surface and put it in a cool place for 10 to 14 days. Turn the leg daily and rub the top side with the liquid that accumulates on the bottom. After 10 to 14 days, dry the ham and cold-smoke it for a day or two.
When you are ready to cook, place the ham in a large container and cover it with a stock made of 4 parts water to 1 part wine, along with some chopped celery, onions, and garlic. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 4 hours, adding more liquid from time to time if needed. Let the ham cool in the liquid. Then remove the ham, cover it with a clean cloth, lay a wooden board on top, and weight it overnight with a flat iron or two.
Cold-Smoked Tongue
Cured and smoked beef tongue is one of my favorite delicacies. It’s best to cure several of these at a time, and they should be purchased fresh at a meat processing plant. Wash the tongues in salted water, then pack them loosely in a nonmetallic container. Cover them with brine (at least 2 cups of salt per gallon of water) and weight them down with a plate, board, or some nonmetallic object. Leave the beef tongues in the brine for 3 to 4 weeks, repacking and stirring the brine every week or so. Dry the tongues and cold-smoke them for a day or longer.
To cook, cover the smoked tongue with water, then add a few juniper berries, peppercorns, and celery tops; boil the tongue for 6 to 7 hours, or longer, until the meat is very tender. Let the tongue cool, peel it, and slice it crosswise.
I can make a meal of smoked tongue, but it is more often served as an appetizer. It is good with stone-ground brown mustard and thin slices of party bread. Sliced tongue also makes a tasty sandwich. If your guests tend to be on the squeamish side, always slice the tongue crosswise and arrange it in a nonsuggestive manner. Otherwise, it might not be an appetizer.
Tongues from sheep, deer, and other mammals can also be cured and smoked to advantage. Tongues from elk and moose should be about the same size as beef tongues, and should be cured and smoked accordingly. For smaller tongues from deer and sheep, reduce the curing and smoking times by about 70 percent. Whale tongue—an old Basque delicacy—should be cured and smoked considerably longer.