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Braised Loin of Mutton with Mushrooms
3 pounds loin mutton, 1 stalk celery, 1/2 teaspoon whole peppers, 1 bunch of sweet herbs, 2 tablespoons Crisco, pepper, salt, red pepper, 1 turnip, 1 carrot, 2 or 3 cloves, sprig of parsley, and 2 tablespoons flour. Remove bone from mutton, thoroughly rub it with salt, pepper, and red pepper; roll up and tie into roll; cut up celery, onion, carrot, and turnip, and lay them at bottom of stewpan with sweet herbs and parsley; lay mutton on top of these, and pour round enough water to 3 parts cover it, simmer slowly 1 1/2 to 2 hours; lift mutton into dripping tin with few tablespoons gravy; set in brisk oven until brown; strain gravy and skim off fat, put Crisco into saucepan, and when brown, add flour, and brown also; then add gravy gradually, little pepper and salt, and 1 dozen button mushrooms, skinned; boil 8 minutes; dish mutton with mushrooms round, and gravy strained over.
A two-stage braise-then-roast, written when mutton was a butcher's staple and Crisco was the new product being promoted. The ingredient list and the method do not quite agree, so read both before you start.
- The list and the method disagreeAn onion appears in the instructions but not in the ingredients — use one medium onion. The whole peppercorns and cloves are listed but never placed; add them to the vegetable bed under the meat, and pick them out or strain them off with the gravy.
- Mutton, and what to buy insteadMutton is sheep over about two years old — stronger and firmer than lamb, and effectively unavailable at supermarkets. A 3 lb boneless lamb shoulder is the closest easy substitute; a boned leg or loin will work but is leaner and dries faster. If you do find true mutton, expect the longer end of the cooking time.
- "A bunch of sweet herbs"A bouquet garni: thyme, marjoram or savory, a bay leaf and the parsley sprig, tied together or bundled in cheesecloth so it lifts out cleanly.
- "Brisk oven"A hot oven, roughly 400-425F. The meat is already cooked through at this point; it is in the oven only long enough to colour the outside, roughly 15-20 minutes. Baste once with the reserved gravy.
- Braising liquid and timingWater three-quarters up the roll, barely simmering — not boiling — for 1½ to 2 hours. Stock in place of water gives a far better sauce, since the original relies on the meat alone for flavour. A rolled and tied shoulder is done when a skewer slides in with no resistance.
- CriscoVegetable shortening, and the reason this recipe exists in this book. Butter, or half butter and half oil, browns more agreeably in a roux; use the same 2 tablespoons.
- Skinning mushroomsPeeling the caps was routinely instructed in cookbooks of this period. Modern button mushrooms need only a wipe. Eight minutes of boiling will shrink them considerably -- five is enough, added near the end.
- Skim properlyLamb and mutton fat sets hard and tastes tallowy when cool. Let the strained liquid stand a few minutes and lift the fat off thoroughly before it goes into the roux, or chill it and lift the cap.
- YieldThree pounds of loin as bought (the original weighs it with the bone in) serves four to six once boned. Slice the roll across the grain in thick rounds so the rolled shape shows.
This comes from A Calendar of Dinners, one of the cookbooks Procter & Gamble commissioned after Crisco went on sale in 1911 to persuade cooks that hydrogenated vegetable shortening could stand in for lard and butter anywhere in the kitchen — hence the two tablespoons of Crisco doing a job that any fat would do. The dish itself is standard Anglo-American braising of the period: mutton was cheap and plentiful, older sheep being a by-product of the wool trade, and a boned loin or shoulder rewarded a long moist cook followed by a short blast of dry heat for colour. That mutton has since all but vanished from English-speaking markets, in favour of young lamb, is why recipes like this one now read as unfamiliar.