The robust, rugged idea of a pig's tongue may seem repulsive, even a bit ridiculous to consider as fodder. Tongues help the animal to feed - why would we feed ourselves on 'it'? Because why not. And, because it's neither of those things.

It’s a light, subtle essence-of-pig flavour, achieved by poaching in bayleaf & peppercorn-infused water for approx. 4 hrs depending on size and ‘girth’. It’s then removed, cooled, and requires the ‘skin’ to be peeled away from the main muscle - it is such a literal, unapologetic ‘body part’, which is why I love it and why it’s worth us trying on a genuinely ethical basis as meat-eaters. The final stage is to fry the tongue whole in a pan - adding a garlic clove to flavour the oil, salt and pepper, and a little stalk of sage or rosemary (again, ideally foraged from neighbour’s gardens).

The aim really is to energise what might be considered inert. It’s a more muted flavour and colour that deserves dynamism, so I purposefully took time to prep fresh apple, a parsley, lemon, caper and shallot dressing, and really design something. On the other hand, it's really quite obvious - what better to pair with pork than apple? A fresh bite and juiciness atop the dense, meaty portion, layered again with very traditional and to-hand herbs and acidity of lemon and vinegar to finish.