1eachcarrot, onion, and a rib of celery, cleaned and roughly chopped
1Tablespoonssea salt
2cupscider vinegar
4cupsmeat stock (or water in a pinch)
½lbbrown sugar
1teaspoonspink saltsodium nitrite, not Himalayan pink salt .
Aromatics (adjust to your preference--I rarely include the same things twice)
1sprig of rosemary
5sprigs of thyme
2bay leaves
Zest of one orange
1bulb garlichalved
¼cupchopped fresh ginger
1teaspoonred pepper flakes
Dried Spices
½inchpiece of cinnamon
2whole star anise
5allspice berries
1tablespoonmustard seed
Instructions
Toast the dried spices. Combine all the ingredients in a small pot that will fit the tongues snugly cover, and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 2 hours on the lowest heat possible, covered, until the lamb tongues are completely tender.
Remove the tongues to a cutting board with a slotted spoon and allow them to cool until you can handle them, then peel with your hands or a paring knife.
Transfer the lamb tongues and their liquid to a container, seal tightly, label and date, then allow the tongues to age for 5 days completely covered by the pickling liquid.
After five days, you can remove the lamb tongues, slice, and eat. Discard the liquid. If you are not going to eat the pickled tongues right away, make sure to leave them underneath the pickling liquid in an airtight jar in the fridge, or store them in a freezer, tightly wrapped in plastic, labeled and dated.
If you want to freeze the tongues for storage, you may want to leave the skin on to help resist freezer burn. Freezing is a really great option here, and was how I used to prep 20-30 lbs of tongues at a time for my house made charcuterie plate.
Notes
You can do this with any tongue, I've used pork, beef, bison, goat, boar, venison and lamb over the years. They're excellent gently warmed and made into a small plate, or just eaten with hot mustard, pickles, and other charcuterie.The dried spices and aromatics are up to you. I rarely make it the same way twice as far as seasonings, but I always keep the same proportion of vinegar-stock-sweetener.The pickled tongues can be frozen whole for storage, thawed, peeled and eaten without their texture suffering from freezing. If you pickle the tongues and keep the in the refrigerator, after the 5 day aging process eat the tongues within a week or two, and always make sure they're kept underneath the pickling liquid.