MUTTON
Roasting.Boiling
For roasting mutton the oven must be brisk. No joint of mutton should be put on the top of the stove.
For dishing and gravy proceed as for beef.
Shank end of leg of mutton makes very good mutton broth.
Boil the bottom half of a leg of mutton in a saucepan three parts full of water for one and a half hours with a teaspoonful of salt. Serve on a flat dish with a little parsley as garniture.
Serve with caper sauce. Proceed as per No.110but adding half a cupful of capers (bottled) instead of the parsley, ten minutes before serving in a boat.
Take a little of the best end of the neck of mutton and, after removing the fat, put it in a stone saucepan which has been previously rinsed in cold water, with half a pint of fresh milk and a little salt. While boiling add half an onion cut up small. Boil gently for an hour and a half. Thicken with a little flour and serve.
Lay the breast of mutton on the pastry board and put sage and onion stuffing (recipe40) into it. Roll and tie with string and bake for one hour.
Cut the leg of mutton in half, the top part for roasting and the rest of the leg cut into cutlets of about an inch thick (it should cut into four cutlets). Put half an ounce of butter into a pan and melt it over the fire. Fry the cutlets over a clear, brisk fire for five minutes, and turn over once during that time. Put the stove top on and cook the cutlets for fifteen minutes more. Then dish.
Cut three pounds of best end of neck of mutton (it is always best to cut your own cutlets), carefullyremove the line of fat and scrape the bone which should not be longer than three inches. Chop the rest off. Put one ounce of fresh butter in an enamelled frying pan and make it hot. Lay the cutlets in the butter and put over a brisk fire for three minutes. Turn once and place on the stove with the top on. Cook for another fifteen minutes. If any doubt is felt as to their being done, it is well to cut one to see whether it is cooked perfectly. It should look red not purple, and the gravy should run. Arrange the mashed potatoes in a pyramid in the centre of the dish and stand the cutlets round it with a little paper frill on each bone.
Take some mutton cutlets from which all the fat has been removed. Put them into a frying pan with a little good dripping and some finely sliced onion. Fry to a light brown. Cut into dice one or more sound turnips and a carrot and put into a small saucepan together with one or two stoned olives or mushrooms cut up, unless the button ones are used. Add the fried meat and onion and if possible a little strong meat gravy to just cover the whole. (The stones of the olives should be put in as well and removed before serving). Add pepper and salt and allow to stew gently an hour and a half. Thicken with a littlesmoothly mixed flour and water stirred into it. Bring to a boil and serve in a deep dish.
Take about two and half pounds of best end of neck of mutton and after removing the bones (which will make mutton stock) cut the meat in two (each cutlet); have two sound turnips and two carrots cut into dice and one large onion finely sliced. Put the vegetables in a pile in the centre of a stone (deep) saucepan. Place the meat round it and add pepper and salt. Pour in a small breakfast cup of cold water and cover the whole with slices of partly cooked boiled potato. Spread liberally with some good beef dripping and cover with the saucepan lid. Put into a good oven and allow two and a half hours for it to cook. Then remove the lid and leave to brown, when it will be ready to serve. It is best served in the saucepan with a white serviette wrapped round it.
Take the remains of cold roast mutton. Remove the fat and cut the meat into nice small slices not too thin. Fry lightly a large onion cut into thin slices, a little diced turnip, and half a dozen dry chillies. Put all together into an enamelled saucepan and if possible a little mutton stock made from the bone. Stewgently for an hour, add two tablespoonfuls of washed rice, thicken with a little flour and water mixed smooth, and serve hot.
Take two and a half pounds of lean lamb cutlets; put them into an enamelled saucepan with an onion cut into thin slices, one or two fresh young turnips peeled and cut into squares, salt and pepper, and a piece of loaf sugar. Stew gently for an hour, add a breakfast-cupful of freshly shelled green peas and let them boil all together for twenty minutes. Thicken with a little smoothly mixed flour and water. Serve very hot with a little chopped parsley dusted over the top.
To roast lamb proceed as for mutton, only the joints, being smaller, will not require so long to cook. A nice way to serve a leg of lamb is as follows: have some bacon lard cut into strips about an inch long, cut little slits in the outside of the leg and insert a piece of bacon lard in each. Cook in a nice steady oven, allowing about an hour and a half for a leg of four pounds.
If you wish to serve a leg of lamb or any other joint cold it is well to choose a joint not too large for yourpurpose and to cook it the day before it is required. Avoid cutting it while it is hot. In this way the gravy should run freely when the cold joint is cut and the flavour will be much better. The same applies to any joint intended to be used cold.
The proper sauce for roast lamb is the mint sauce. Take twenty-four leaves of mint chopped very fine, a teacupful of vinegar, and two good teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar. Dissolve the sugar in vinegar and put it with the mint into a sauce boat.