Best tongue (so far)

I've been cooking tongue from before I got my first Egg. I started with brief pressure cooking, followed by a session on my ECB. Altho' I continued doing a brief pressure cook to make peeling the tongue easier before Egging it, the Egg can do it low and slow with great results. I bought a sous vide controller last Christmas, and found that a preliminary cook in the water bath, followed by and Egg smoking session made for great results.

Image 1. A beef tongue cut into 3 sections. Bottom left, the "root," which is fattier and full of thick seams of connective tissue. Top left, The top back of the tongue, seperated from the root. Right, the tip. Total weight, 3.8 lbs.

Image 2. The three sections after 72 hours at 140F. Note that the fluid in the center bag, which holds the root, is browner. I believe this was because there was some air left in the bag. All bags were weighted down under a plate.

A little more than 2 cups of fluid came out of the sections. The sections had been bagged with just some canning salt. I used a bit too much. The pieces were suffused w. salt, and very tasty straight from the bath. I kept the fluid for basting, but did not save it for gravy because it was saltier than I like.

Image 3. A cross cut of the tip of the tongue. Note the thickness of the "skin" on the top. Before cooking, its like rough leather. After 72 hrs. in the bath, I could push it off with my fingers.

Image 4. The blade is 3" long. The knife cost .10 at a second hand store. I like its shape, but it cannot take much of an edge. Nevertheless, I was able to easily peel the skin away with it. Altho' the texture was a little odd, the shavings were perfectly edible.

Image 5. On the left, the root section, rubbed with John Henry's Old Stockyard rub. In the center, the back portion with my own all purpose rub. On right, the tip with some Wooster splashed on, and some additional black pepper. DP Cowlick is also very good on tongue, which is why, when I went to use some, I found less than a thimble left from previous cooks.

Image 6. The pieces after about 45 min, direct, raised, dome about 260F, lots of oak chips. The root's temperature was over 200, the back portion was a little over 190, and the tip, tho' thinest, was under 190. The pieces were all flipped once, and rotated, so they would get about the same exposure to heat. Basted lightly when flipped. Total yield, about 1 3/4 pounds.

Image 7. Cutting into the cooked pieces. You should be able to see how "juicy" the melted collagen makes the lean meat look.

All the pieces ended up amazingly tender. The root had some fat left unrendered, but the thick streaks of connective tissue were so soft, I could barely feel them when I ate small slices. As mentioned above, I used a little too much salt in the bags, so the finished product with the added rubs was saltier than necessary. Thin slices are fine by themselves, but I think the flavor will be very good when mixed with the sour-dough I will be baking in an hour or two.