Chilled Mobile Thyme Tongue

Over the years, I’d say I’ve been to my share of gracious garden parties in Mobile, Alabama (perhaps the most memorable one during the annual forty-day carnival preceding Lent), and so often have I seen platters of what locals call thyme tongue among the smoked turkey, rolled veal, creamed oysters in patty shells, and vegetable aspic on the buffet that I’m ready to believe it’s the city’s signature dish. Nobody seems to know when or how thyme tongue became so popular, or why it is religious