Cured Smoked Beef Ox Tongue 800g

Our ethos has always been to celebrate the whole carcass, and nose-to-tail cooking and eating is a fundamental part of that. Over the years, we have refined recipes that highlight the versatility and delights of the fifth quarter, with Cured** Smoked Beef Ox Tongue being a perfect example.

We elevate our outstanding Cured Beef Ox Tongue with a light smoke. After artisanal curing for superior eating quality, the ox tongues are smoked for 6-hours over beech hardwood, resulting in a product that is a staple bestseller in our restaurant community.

Chef Val Warner inspires:
"Ox tongue is delicious as is, but when smoked moves into another world of delights.

In a split pea and ham soup, replace the dry-cured smoked ham hock or bacon with smoked tongue, and it delivers just as well.

For a lunch that truly wows, try my ox tongue recipe with beetroot and horseradish cream; serve with sourdough bread and this is just the kind of thing you'd hope to find in a remote pub with uncomfortable furniture, a glowing fire and a stone floor.

In Boston beans, replacing the bacon with tongue makes for a mess of beans that are all at once happy, dark, sweet and savoury.

Barbecue sauce is a winner with tongue. Turn the tongue regularly over the grill and paint generously. Then slice and eat on creamed corn.

Sliced thinly and fried with shallots, chillies, garlic, ginger, soya sauce and Szechuan peppercorns is unutterably brilliant.

Poach cubes of smoked tongue amongst kale and barley, and you’ll have a divine broth.

Give the traditional pasty a facelift, by adding smoked tongue to the potato and onion mix. Spray with an industrial bombardment of black pepper, and it could bolster even the most wind-lashed rambler along a coastal path. 

Or browned and braised slowly in a creamy mustard sauce, it’s just heaven when eaten with boiled new potatoes."

*All Swaledale beef is native breed and raised on independent farms and smallholdings dotted around the wildly beautiful Dales. Slow grown and free to roam on lush Yorkshire pasture; the results are exceptional. We also sell Ox Tongue and Cured Beef Ox Tongue.

**We cure our heritage breed ox tongue for superior eating quality and outstanding flavour. Dry-curing is a preservation process that draws moisture out of the tongue, and at the same time intensifies the taste and elevates the texture of the meat. During dry-curing, Swaledale applies an in-house rub to the tongue, and stores it in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. Creating optimum conditions for dry-curing allows the enzymes to get to work, breaking down the proteins and fats and creating intense flavours and distinctive textures. As moisture is extracted the dry-cured meat may lose anything from 20-30% in water weight, creating meat that has a closer grained texture and a denser mouth feel, because, and here’s the beautiful truth, you're getting less water and more meat.